The Three Blades
by ashyash22
Summary: The world is a cruel corrupt place. Many people learn this lesson in their lives. The sad thing is they learn it at such a young age. Tatsumi's village was destroyed when he was only ten and he ran barely escaping with his life. Akame's and Kurome's parents attempted to sell them before they ran away. Unexpected things happen when these three meet up in the middle of nowhere.
1. Family

A small lone figure with medium length brown hair and green eyes was slowly making its way across a frozen forest. The figure was wearing torn clothes no doubt from wandering for many days. When the rays of the moon hit this lone figure, it revealed that this was Tatsumi. The fire crackled as he sat by it in his small camp in an attempt to keep warm while trying to fall asleep. He had been traveling for what seemed an endless amount of days. The reason he, a ten-year-old was wandering alone hundreds of mile from any village was because his was destroyed. He still remembered what had occurred three days prior.

The soldiers rushing in and soon resulting in blood tainting the streets. Cruel laughter echoing throughout the whole place while it was slowly but surely being encased in ice. The terrified looks of his best friends Sayo and Ieyasu as they were frozen in their icy prison.

Tatsumi still had no idea how he had escaped that frozen hell all he knew was that he had started running and didn't stop until he did not recognize the place he was in. This was how it had been for the past three days just only running until he no longer could, walk for a bit, and run again. He had no idea where he was going and what to expect but he had only two thoughts on his mind, one being how evil the empire was and how it should be destroyed and the other just looking for a family and the feeling of being safe again. His thoughts were soon interrupted by twigs snapping to his left.

Tatsumi pov

As soon as the sound of twigs snapping breached my ears I stood up and took a defensive stance and drew out my short sword. While many people would think it was cute a ten year old could even hold a sword I knew better. Despite my age I was highly intellectual in both knowledge and skill, thankfully one of them being knowing how to start a fire with scratch. I have been trained in many arts with my best being combat with a sword. Scanning my surroundings I noticed a couple densely packed trees to my right that could be used for climbing up or just dashing through in attempt to escape a target. Returning my attention to the direction of the noises two figures soon emerged. Both were females with dark raven hair one with black eyes the other with red. Probably sisters I thought. Soon the duo saw me and both of their eyes widened in alarm. The older looking of the two that looked around my age said in a shaky voice "We don't mean no harm, we've been running for a long time and are just looking for a clearing to rest."

Sensing no deceit in her voice I calmy sheathed my sword and said "Well I know how tiring it is to run long without a good rest so if you two would like You can relax by the fire. Flashing him a grateful smile the two soon hurried over and sat down by the fire with their palms facing it in an attempt to heat up their cold bodies. I Chuckled slightly to myself as I sat back down.

Several moments passed before the younger of the duo finally spoke, "Thank you for letting us rest by your fire I am Kurome, and this is my older sister Akame."

I took a look at Kurome before replying "It was my pleasure, it has been many days since I've seen a friendly face, and my name, by the way, is Tatsumi." Wondering to myself to why such young girls would be running I decided to ask them.

"If you don't mind me asking why are you two running anyways?" A look of sorrow and pain flashed across Akame's face while anger and resentment flashed across Kurome's, but as soon as they appeared, they vanished. It looked as if they were having a mantle debate if they should tell me or not so I said something before they could.

"It's okay if you would rather not share that piece of information I know myself how hard and unforgiving life can be."

A confused look appeared on them and before they could ask I told them my story of how the empire eliminated my village and how I was probably the only survivor. After I had finished my story, I was nearly in tears just from thinking about Sayo and Ieyasu. Closing my eyes in the attempt to stop the tears from escaping, I stayed like that for who knows how long until I felt a warmth from either side of me. Confused to where this mysterious heat was coming from I opened my eyes to find the sisters hugging me in comfort. After what seemed like hours but what in reality was minutes I finally managed to calm myself down.

"Thank you I sorry you two had to see that," I said to them. Suddenly two sharp slaps echoing throughout the night as they both slapped that. I turned to Akame demanding a reason to why she slapped me but was met with her stern glare.

"Don't you ever apologize for crying while mourning your friends it shows you have a heart and more importantly it shows you're a good person." I turned to Kurome to see if she had anything to add but all I got was a sharp nod from her. Apologizing again "Sorry, and thank you two." A warm smile had appeared on their faces before Kurome spoke.

"For telling us your story we shall tell you ours." Taking a deep breath she told me the story of how she and Akame were from a village not too far from mine and how they had one night heard their parents speaking to an official from the empire. Apparently, he was offering large sums of money to them in exchange for their daughters. Akame then picked up the story on how as soon as they heard their parents agree they rushed out of the village without a look back." I honestly pitied they had such terrible parents, but before I could put my thoughts into words, I was interrupted by twin growls. The source of the noise came from their stomachs.

I chuckled before asking "Hungry?" The only answer "Shuffling through my bag one of the possessions I rarely parted with I pulled out some meat I had wrapped in a cloth and stuck it to a stick lying on the nearby ground before cooking it over the fire. After It had finished cooking, I cut it in half a gave a piece to each sister. I barely had time to put the cloth back in the bag before both chunks of meat were devoured. Looking at both of them with awe I said: "Is that your normal appetite or have you just not eaten in a long time?"

Both of them looked at me and replied "Both."

Chuckling I asked them "So do you two have any plans as to where you're gonna go?"

They gave me a sad smile before saying "We have nowhere to go, we have no family and no idea where any safe place is."

Pondering how similar both of our situations an Idea slowly formed in my head. "I have a proposition since all three of us have no family left how about we form our own family and keep each other safe?" I barely had time to ask before they both tackled me into a hug screaming "YES!" Later into the night after talking and sharing many jokes and laughs and the fire long died out we decided to go to sleep. Laying down on my back I slowly drifted off to sleep with my last thoughts being concerned with my new family before sleep overtook me, but just a couple seconds before that I felt two warm presences on either side of me.


	2. Destinations

I woke up to an unfamiliar warmth. Opening my eyes to the harsh light known as daylight I was shocked to see that during the night Akame and Kurome had snuggled up to me. _So that's the warmth I felt before I fell asleep._ Not knowing how the two females would react to this I struggled to get out of their grasp but my efforts were proven futile due to their iron like grips. _Shit. Shit. Shit. I am so dead._ This was all I could think of as I tried to think of any possible way to escape.

But I guess luck was not on my side today as Simultaneous groans came out of their mouths. I just barely had enough time to act like I was still asleep when both of them started moving. I could feel their grips slacked and then vanish before I heard the sound of feet moving away from me. They started whispering to each other in hushed tones so I could not hear what they were saying. I could feel their grips slacked and then vanish before I heard the sound of feet moving away from me.

They started whispering to each other in hushed tones so I could not hear what they were saying. _Probably trying not to wake me up._ Deciding it was time to "wake up" I let a groan escaped my mouth before sitting up and rubbing my eyes. When I opened them I was greeted with both of their cherry red faces before they turned their back to me.

Trying to play dumb I asked, "Something the matter?"

"Nothings wrong," replied Akame in a skittish voice. Deciding it best not to push the subject I approached a different subject. "Anything, in particular, you two wanna eat?" They both looked at me before Kurome replied "There's a choice?" like it was one of the most luxurious things in the word. Akame, on the other hand, was drooling at the thought of food.

I chuckled before replying "Of course there is there is a lake nearby to fish from, wild deer in the area, and my favorite, giant fish danger beast." Kurome looked at me like I was stupid probably at the last thing I said while Akame looked worried. Noticing their looks I decided to assure them "Relax I have been trained in combat for the last two years and they are pretty weak danger beast and besides their meat is one of the juiciest you will ever taste"

Their faces returned to normal after my words before Akame asked, "Well since you know how to handle getting the food we will set up a fire and spit to cook it on." Nodding to her words I unsheathed my knives from my waist before handed one to each of them.

"Just in case," I told them. They flashed me a grateful smile and that was the last thing I saw before I went on my hunt for food. Around ten minutes later I saw the river and luckily there was a giant fish in it. Using the element of surprise I crept up to the edge and jumped in blade first into the river. One quick slash is all it took as my blade blended its brain to pieces. _Now for the tough part,_ I thought. I exited the river and grabbed the edge of the fishes carcass and brought it up to the land. I grabbed it with my other hand and slung it over my shoulders and carried it to the campsite. When I returned I was happy to see Akame and Kurome were both there relaxing in front of the roaring fire.

Approaching the center of the camp I quickly prepared the fish. After the fish was prepared we had a hearty meal before we set off on the road or well whatever you would call blindly walking through the wilderness. After walking for a couple hours with light talking between the three of us we came across a gruesome sight. We came on what appeared to be the remains of a trading caravan. Six wagons were situated in a U formation with a dozen or so skeletons among the wreckage. I turned to my companions to see shocked and scared expressions on their faces.

Thinking of my words carefully I said to them "don't worry the thing that caused this is probably long gone and if isn't I will protect you. This looked like it happened years ago anyways considering they are all skeletons." They looked at me with before their expression returned to their normal demeanor.

"Now come on let's see if there was anything left behind."

It turns out this was apparently a clothing caravan due to the sheer amount of clothing and clothing accessories inside the wagons. I myself found a tan sweater vest, with black pants, and combat boots all conveniently in my size. I looked to my companions and I saw they too had also found new outfits. Akame was wearing a dark sleeveless mini dress with a white collar and red tie and Kurome was wearing a black sailor suit.

"Find anything besides clothes?" I asked the duo.

Akame approached me before showing me a piece of worn out parchment that appeared to be a map. "It's a map." I simply stated. Akame gave a small laugh at my intelligent words before saying "Yes it is a map and it also has a destination."

"Should we go to it?" I asked.

"Better than wandering blindly," came Kurome's voice behind me.

I nodded and said "well might as well start heading to it and anything else you two found?"

Kurome looked at us before saying "Well I may have found a pair of blades that Akame and I can use but neither of us has any knowledge on how to wield one effectively." she said.

I pondered this for a second before coming up with an idea. "Why don't I teach the two of you it would be useful since we don't know what kind of danger beast we will eventually run into?" I asked the sisters.

They looked at me with wordless thanks in their eyes and gave me a quick hug. We quickly went to the wagon with the swords and started making way to the destination on the map finally happy to have a destination to go to.


	3. Training

There are many lessons you learn on the road. Some of these lessons can save your life such as don't over exert yourself or don't take any big risk, but in my opinion, the most important rule of them all is to NEVER let Akame or Kurome go long without eating or things will tend to get worse. I realized this as we were trekking across the unending snowy stretch of land which seemed devoid of wildlife, or so it seemed. Not a sound was heard as we walked until a shriek echoed through the skies along with the sound of beating wings.

Turning around quickly I was greeted with the sight of a giant brown feather flying danger beast approaching. It had seven razor sharp talons on each of its four appendages along with a single one on its long wicked tale. The teeth of the beast were as large as a grown man's arm and as sharp as any blade. It had two large deep blood red eyes that screamed for blood. The creature lunged at me seeking to rip me to shreds immediately. I quickly sidestepped and manage to get a slash in before it smacked me with one of its appendages. Knowing I had no way to avoid its next attack it lunged at me for the kill, but before it reached me it was tackled by two black blurs. The momentum caused the beast to land on its side which led to Akame plunging her knife into its rib cage while Kurome impaled her in its skull. The beast didn't even have time to shriek before the life left its eyes. Shakily getting up I muttered quick thanks to the two for saving me from certain death from the murderous danger beast.

I began wondering if this was the danger beast that had taken out that caravan we saw a day ago, but soon disregarded the thought because I remembered two things. One was they were skeletons so that meant they were killed by something that wasn't a danger beast since they eat their victims. The other thing being they were skeletons so whatever killed them was a long time ago. My thoughts were interrupted by the loud but very angry stomach growls of the two sisters. _Don't know why they can't go so long without eating they are a never ending pit._

Luckily I didn't get to hear them say they were hungry again as a magnificent stag burst from the nearby treeline. The thing was probably one of the largest I have ever seen with Gigantic horns and by the looks of it plenty of meat for a family of adults, so probably a decent meal for them. The stag examined its surrounded and when its eyes landed on us it prepared to make a run for it, sadly it didn't make it far. Two knives sailed through the air one to its current position and one to where it would head if it ran. In a matter of seconds, the stag fell upon the earth before dying. Quicker than the eye could process Kurome was starting a fire while Akame started skinning the deer. The willpower of two hungry women astounded me. After a warm meal later we continued our journey along the road.

The place we were heading to was a town that none of us have ever heard of, its name was Snowgap. If the place was important enough for traders to go to then it must have some supplies they could purchase with the money they found among the caravan.

As the son began to fall to the earth and the moon began to climb the sky they decided to set up camp in a small clearing they found. _Might as well begin to teach them how to wield their blades._

"Alright, so you two want to learn how to use a sword so to start your training I want you both to each find and bring back a large stick that is strong enough to take some hits but small enough to wield in one hand."

Looking at my confused a bit they hesitated by soon went in the search of said sticks. While they searched I rummaged through my bag before finding my own old wooden training sword. I began to examine the wooden sword and by the time I finished they came back with their own sticks. I then proceeded to give them instructions, "To learn to wield a blade we must practice with nonlethal ones and for that to happen you must make your own which will also help you understand a blade a little more."

They nodded in understanding before they took their knives out and began to carve their swords. Roughly an hour later they finished with crude but usable training swords. "Good now before we run and swing at each other madly you must learn the proper stances." I showed them a couple of stances and they seemed to get it mostly right but I still had to throw in a few comment such as "Don't be so stiff, those who bend like a reed will succeed in battle." After half an hour of this, I showed them basic moves like a simple slash or cut. By the time we finished this all of our eyes were begging for the sweet embrace of sleep. Putting away my stuff I quickly laid down on my back and fell into the realm of sleep.

I woke up to the smell of yesterday's leftover deer meat. _Surprised there was any at all._ After the meal, we set out on the road again towards Snowgap. After the son had barely reach mid sky we saw the faint outline of the village and soon after the village itself. The problem was instead of a village full of people bustling around living their lives, we were meant only with the burnt remains of humans and buildings alike.


	4. Swords of power

The smell it what hit us first, it was almost unbearable. The smell of rotting flesh mixed in the smell of the ash in the air made me sick in my stomach. Not wanting to spend any more time looking or being anyway near the village I said to my companions, "Let's get out of here. I have a feeling this wasn't too long ago and whatever the cause of this might still be in the area."

They both looked like they wanted to do nothing more than what I just said, and so we sprinted as fast as we could to get away from the hellish place. After running as far as our legs could take us we fell into a heap on the ground exhausted.

"What *gasp* was that?" Akame asked.

"Probably a *gasp* Incineration squad from *gasp* the empire." was my best answer.

Looks of pure hatred appeared on all of faces at the mention of the empire, it had had caused so many horrible effects on people's lives including our own. I knew more than anything that all three of us wanted nothing more than the empire to come tumbling down in flames.

After managing to finally regain our breath after a short while and continued moving trying to find any sort of clue to where we could go next, we didn't have to wait long. Just as the sun was setting I noticed the hardness of the ground beneath me had changed but thought nothing of it. However the ground decided to be noticed as it gave way beneath the weight of the three of us, sending us tumbling into darkness before smashing into a hard solid object sending us into the realm of unconsciousness.

When I came to I noticed two things, it was dark and cold. I opened my eyes to see we had fallen into a dimly lit circular room made out of stone. Noticing my companions were still knocked out I went over to them and shook them awake.

"Ugh… what happened?" Were the first words that came out of Kurome's mouth.

"By the looks of it were in some long forgotten underground temple and due to it being real old the roof collapsed under our weight when we walked on top of it thinking it was just normal grass covered in snow." Was my best answer. Before she could respond Akame said something that peaked both of our interest.

"Hey what's in that room over there?" She said while pointing to a separate chamber that I had not noticed.

Curiosity taking control of me I started walking towards the chamber with both of the girls in tow. When we entered the room the first thing I noticed it was triangle shaped. The second thing I noticed was a granite pedestal with a opened book upon it. The final thing but definitely the coolest were the beautiful but deadly swords that were on the separate pedestals one in each corner. Walking up to the book and looking at the words I read aloud so my friends could hear.

"Here in the temple of Silvertongue are the three Teigu swords of power. Murasame the blade of poison, Toripuru the blade of three abilities, Genso the blade of illusion. When the true masters of these blades appear only then will they be able to be taken from their pedestal and share their secrets with master."

After reading this I looked at the blades in awe and fear at them. When my eyes landed on a sword with a straight blade with a black crossguard and hilt. This however isn't what caught my eye, it was the gem in the pommel it was what seemed to be a mix of a sapphire, ruby, and emerald. I looked at Akame and saw she was looking at a katana shaped blade and Kurome who was looking at an almost transparent one.

I don't know why but I felt a strange connection to this blade so I reached out to grab it. As my hand touched the grip I felt an agonizing pain go through my body before a mass amount of knowledge passed through my mind. This knowledge told me this was the blade Toripuru and also told me I was its master. It also told me the gem inside it would change to the ability I wanted to use it for. Red was for blood lust which meant every enemy I killed while it was active renewed my energy a decent amount, blue allowed the blade to hack through the hardest of materials, and green allowed my blade to go through another person's blade if they tried to block my attack. The final piece of information it told me was its trump card which allowed my blade to absorb a person's essence into the sword and allowed me to channel the essence into my self or an ally to heal them completely but could only be used three times. I looked at the girls to noticed they two had also grabbed the other swords and were going through the knowledge I assume they must have gotten to.

After we all got out of our thinking state and told the each other what powers our blades had. Akame's was a sword of poison that with the smallest scratch killed them while the trump card gave her incredible strength and agility. Kurome's was a blade that fooled the enemy to think it was in one place while it was in another with the trump card being the ability to make duplicates of herself.

After the sharing of each others abilities we decided we would use this temple as a base since apparently there were more rooms which housed several areas such as a dojo, kitchen, sleeping quarters etc. Tired from the day's events we went to our respective rooms still in shock of today's events.


	5. Five Years Later

**Timeskip 5 years.**

I took a pause from hacking away at danger beasts, and readied my sword for my next attack. So far, me, Akame, and Kurome managed to wipe out hordes of enemies that had gathered around our home.

"Tatsumi, duck!" Akame yelled. I complied and felt the whoosh of the Evilbird that had just narrowly missed me. I was beginning to think there were so many because of the sheer amount we had hunted and eaten.

"Thanks Akame, you saved me." I said.

"Wouldn't be the first or the last time." She said with a fair bit of amusement in her voice.

"Wouldn't be the same if you didn't." I replied with a smirk.

Akame opened her mouth probably to give a retort when Kurome shouted, "Stop yapping and start making it rain blood!"

We converged into a triangle formation with our backs together as another massive wave of Evilbirds and Snowbears attacked. The next five minutes were a blur the only thing I really remembered was obliterating the remaining enemy. Sadly the victory was short lived, as a loud roar pierced the sky along with the heavy beating of wings. From the sky descended a massive gray dragon with ragged spikes running along its spine.

Flicking my sword in a backwards motion I changed the ruby into a sapphire. The beast let out a roar before lunging and raking it claws at it tried to skewer the three of us. Kurome got up in its face and attack with Genso. The dragon like everything else was fooled as it thought the blade was in one place as the blade struck the beast from a completely different direction. As the dragon let out another road I hacked away at the front of its legs buying Akame time to sink Murasame into it. The dragon shuddered as the poison took its toll effectively ending its life.

Sheathing my sword and gaining my breath I began to think of the past five years of my life. The night after we discovered our Teigu we also learned they had a couple drawbacks, one of which being that if the three users don't sleep together in a close vicinity the users will experience harsh forgiving nightmares. Now in my opinion this wasn't a problem at all since I could have an excuse to waking up with two very cute girls. The other drawback of the weapons are if one of the three users starts to get tired in battle the others will soon follow.

Now these may seem kinda odd drawbacks, but with the drawbacks came advantages. If we fought together our energy was tripled, and if we all focused attacks on one target it was almost guaranteed it was going to die and if not was gonna end up horribly injured to where it could not fight for a long time.

After I taught Akame and Kurome as much as I could with wooden swords, I began to teach them with the swords they found in that caravan long ago, and soon after that we were all on par when we fought each other in free for all's. After we had were certain we could hold our own with most of what the world could throw on us we began small escapades in the capital which was only half a day's journey from us. We would go through the slums and pick up stories of how truly evil the empire was. Along with that we picked up names of some the people and decided to take justice into our own hands. We did small task such as taking out local gangs with the occasional regal family. Even though this would do little to stop the empire it did lift the spirits of the people if ever so slightly. By far our most interesting task we had carried out was the assassination on a general.

 _Flashback_

 _A carriage with a guard of around fifty men was making it ways to the capital. Inside the carriage housed general Limick. Me and my companions were on top of a small hill overlooking the trail the general was taking back to the capital. As soon as they passed underneath Kurome jumped in front of the small army while Akame got in behind. Both of them were just blurs in a sea of blood as Kurome's sword was swinging faster than the eye could follow while Akame was dashing through the men getting small cuts on them effectively taking their lives. Flicking my blade into emerald form I jumped down just in time to see the general step out and prepare to kill the scum who was stupid enough to attack them. He set his eyes on me and let out a harsh war cry before swinging his massive greatsword at me. I blocked the blow and countered with my own while Limick tried to block my attack. Poor bastard never saw it coming as my blade shifted past his and cut his throat._

 _Flashback End_

I chuckled at the memory it was truly a fun battle but after it we had to lay low for a pretty good while since the empire was frantically searching for the people who killed one of its generals. Even after the search had died out we still remained very careful while in the capital and every time we went I swear I always saw a yellow blur in the corner of my eyes.

Walking over to my companions I saw they had recovered as well and were ready to continue our journey to the capital to assassinate the Harvard family. Apparently this family loved luring in country people and torturing them in their storehouse. After a couple hours we finally arrived at our targets manor but were greeted with the sight of blood across the lawn. Searching for what I had caused this I saw something that I was not expecting.

I looked up into the red moon and only managed to say two words, "Night Raid."


	6. Night Raid

The sounds of gunfire echoed throughout the night. After seeing that Night Raid had already infiltrated the manor we heard the clanking of metal boots in the nearby trees. Following the the noise we found a blonde girl probably the Harvard's daughter surrounded by at least fifty guards. Nodding to my comrades we jumped into the sea of metal slashing everything in sight.

Switching Toripuru to sapphire mode I hacked through the guards armor with ease. They tried to kill us with their guns but we were too fast and avoided them with ease. Akame walked up to the girl who by now was hugging her knees to her chest while rocking back and forth mumbling incoherent thoughts. Deciding to end the vile girl Akame walked up and ended her life in one swing of her blade.

Noticing we were being watched I turned around and called out "We know you're there step out!"

Out from the foliage stepped out a blonde with a rather large bust. She then asked,

"Impressive, you guys managed to take out more than I did tonight. You guys got any ties to the Capital?"

"The Capital can burn for all we care." Kurome replied.

A sly grin appeared on the blondes face before she asked, "Perfect. How would you guys like to join us in Night Raid?"

I didn't even have the chance to respond before Kurome said "Depends."

"On?" the blonde said curious to know her demands.

"What would we be doing while in Night Raid?" Kurome replied.

The blonde chuckled and her grin stretched further, "Same thing you guys did tonight but probably more often. Along with some light chores like cooking or something."

I knew as soon as she said cooking the girls were hooked due to their love for food.

Looking calmly at her I gave a small laugh before saying, "I think you had them hooked at cooking."

On her face a shit eating grin formed before she picked us up with ease and led us to where the rest of her, or should I say our team were waiting. Before any words were exchanged however I felt something hit the back of my head as my world went black.

When I came to I noticed three things. One, I was in a soft bed. Two, my usual twin heaters were missing. Three, the result of my heaters missing the nightmarish thoughts that manifested last night were still lingering.

 _ **Kill. Destroy. Annihilate. Take the power you possess and end all life. Kill friend and foes alike and after your done drink their blood from their own skulls.**_

After a couple of minutes the thoughts lessened but were still present. Opening my eyes I noticed I was in looked like a normal bedroom had a window looking out into a forest and had a small desk along the wall. The door opened and in stepped a girl with purple hair and eyes in a purple dress.

"Hello, glad to see you awake and sorry for knocking you out but we wanted you to talk to the boss before we could show you where our base was at." She said.

Nodding in understanding I asked "Are my friends awake yet?"

"No they are not awake yet." she said.

Knowing they would wake up to the demonic thoughts that I had I asked her "Can you please take me to them?"

She gave me a curious look before asking "Why?"

I debating if I should tell her about our Teigu before deciding if I wanted to gain their trust this would make it go faster besides, Akame and Kurome needed me. So I told her about or Teigu and explained how if we weren't close to each other when we were asleep we would be plagued by vile thoughts.

Before we exited the room she gave me a quick glance and said "By the way my name is Schere."

"Tatsumi."

She gave me a small smile before she beckoned me to follow her. She didn't even get halfway out of the door before she tripped and face planted.

"Ow," she said while rubbing her forehead. After she had soothed the bump on her head she then started frantically searching the ground. I noticed a pair of glasses on the ground and figured they were hers so I picked them up and handed them to her. She nodded to me in thanks before we headed into a separate hallway.

We stopped outside a door before Schere said "I'll be waiting right here it would be better if they woke to a familiar face."

I entered the room to find both of my friends on a bed muttering incoherent things in their sleep. Walking up to them I shook them awake. My reward was an immediate fist to the gut. I fell to the ground clutching my gut while Akame was helping me get up, while Kurome was laughing.

"Thanks for your concern Kurome, I mean really you punch me and you laugh while your sister is the one helping me."

Finally gaining control of herself she finally said "Yup."

"Your priorities concern me sometimes." I muttered under my breath.

"So anyways what happened last night?" Kurome asked.

"Apparently since we didn't meet their boss they didn't want us to know the location of the hideout so they knocked us out and brought us here." I replied.

"So did you two get any nightmares?" I asked them.

"We did but I think punching you in the gut got the thoughts out of our heads." Kurome replied with a sly grin.

"Well lets go meet their boss, I'm getting hungry." Akame suggested.

We stepped out of the room to find Schere leaning against the wall while reading a book.

"Ah good everyone is awake." she said not even looking up from her book..

"Yeah we all awake now where is your boss?" I asked her.

"Right here." said a feminine voice with no owner.

Noticing my quizzical look Schere moved and in her place was a woman that had a robotic arm and a eye patch.


	7. Teigus

I gave the woman before me a calculating gaze before I spoke. "So your the infamous leader of Night Raid? You definitely look the part I'll give you that." At my words a sly grin dawned on the her face.

"As a fellow killer in this world you should know that appearances don't always tell who the person is." She replied. "But, I have always fancied myself as the badass leader." I gave a nod to her first sentence as it was the truth that me and my companions knew all too well.

"Well anyways your guess was right, I am the leader of Night Raid. My name is Najenda."

"It's a pleasure Najenda ,my name is Tatsumi. The long haired girl with me is Akame and the one who is munching on cookies is Kurome." At the mention of their names Akame gave a nod towards Najenda and Kurome did the same but clutched her cookies closer to her as she did.

"Well before I hear the story the three of you have, I would prefer if you did it where everyone could hear the tale, it if that's okay with you."

I didn't see no problem with this. Its not like they are going to let three Teigu users get away after all. "Fine by me where shall we do this then?"

She gave a motion with her robotic arm that told the four of us to follow her and so we did. We followed her into what was I assumed was the main hall. She walked up into a gilded seat in the middle of the room and sat down. Kurome, Akame, and myself stood in the middle of the room while Schere went to stand off a bit closer to Najenda. It wasn't long after that another person entered the room.

The first one to enter was a tall, muscular young man with blue eyes and black hair that he usually wore in a combed up, heart-shaped pompadour. Following him was a another male with short green hair and red goggles on top of his head. He wore a long green jacket with a fur trimmed hood over a white and red ringer shirt and blue jeans. After they entered the room they went stood on the opposite side of the room that Schere was on.

A couple minutes later and the sound of footsteps breached my ears. Entering the room was the blonde we met last night. With her was a rather short girl. Her hair was a very long pink hair tied in twin-tails on the right and left sides of her head. Her eyes along with her outfit were also pink. They went and stood beside Schere.

Najenda took out a cigar and lighted it before she began speaking. "Alright everyone thank you for assembling. From what I have heard last night during the Harvard family job the daughter of the family who was accompanied by at least fifty guards were completely decimated by these three. Am I right Leone?" She asked turning to the blonde.

"Yes Najenda. While the others were fighting the rest of the guards and killing the parents I went to go handle the daughter alone expecting a fun fight from her guards. When I got there however, I saw these three had already killed half of them and within the next minute had completely finished the whole guard off. After this they ended the life of the daughter." Najenda nodded at her words.

"So I assumed since you killed that many so fast that you three are in the possession of Teigus. Is this correct?" I gave her a nod before I pulled out Toripuru. The people in the room stared in awe at the swords beauty. Motioning for Akame and Kurome to do the same they pulled out Murasame and Genso.

"You are correct Najenda we all possess sword Teigu." I told the older woman. "Am I right to assume due to your numbers that more than likely each of you possess a Teigu as well?"

"Close but not quite. Everyone but me has a Teigu." That didn't surprise me since it was risky to head out as a leader so she wouldn't do much fighting. Besides that mechanical arm probably had a couple tricks of its own. She then took a look at the others in the room. "Go ahead and show them your Teigus since they have already shown us ours.

The more muscular male was to the first to approach us. "Nice to meet you all, the name Bulat." He then fixed his gaze precicely on me before saying "But you however can call me bro." He then proceeded to scream "Incursio!" A brilliant light engulfed the man as he was surrounded by armor. He then proceeded to summon a gigantic spear. "This is the Demon Armor: Incursio."

The next to approach was the green head. "Nice to meet you three, especially you two ladies." He said in a flirtatious tone. "The name is Lubbock, and this is my Teigu, Infinite Uses: Cross Tail." He said this as he held his hands which if one looked carefully could just barely see the glint of wires between.

Schere approached us next nearly tripping on the floor as she did. "Well you already know my name but here is my Teigu, Cutter of Creation: Extase." She pulled out a massive pare of scissors that had a panda symbol in the middle of it.

The next person was the shorty. "Listen well bugs because I am only going to say this once." She said smugly with a prideful look on her face. "My name is Mine and this is my Teigu, Roman Artillery: Pumpkin."

The last person to step up was the blonde. "Well we have met before but you didn't ask my name which by the way is Leone. She then gestured to her belt. "This is my Teigu, Animal King: Lionel."

'Well we certainly got a wide variety of personalities in the room.'

Najenda seeing that the introduction were finally done finally asked the one question that everyone from Night Raid had been anticipating. "So Tatsumi, Kurome, Akame how about it? Feel like joining us in our merry band?" I glanced back at the two and saw from their expressions that the choice remained solely with me. I glanced at Najenda before I nodded. With that answer a grin formed on her face. "Welcome to the life of carnage."


	8. Zank the Beheader

After joining Night Raid the days themselves seemed to pass by like a piece of paper caught in the wind. The three of us have become completely used to what life was like here. Unless there was a mission to do the same routine was followed. We had already completed one mission which was just downright easy since all we had to do was kill a guy called General Ogre. It was just pathetic how fast he went down. So far besides that there hasn't been anything really interesting happening.

Right now we were in the process of making lunch or should I say I was making the lunch due to two certain black hair sisters trying to eat the food. Finally getting a little irritated as they both thought I didn't notice two steaks disappearing I grabbed two steak knives and slammed them down a centimeter away from their hands.

"Akame, Kurome, I recommend you give me those steaks back." At these words a pout before formed on both their faces. "If you don't give them back I won't cook for you two anymore." After that added threat they both practically shoved the steaks towards me. 'Huh, who knew my cooking was that god to get them to give up food.' I took another look at the food before I noticed that it was done. I carried the food over to the table where everyone was sitting. As usual everyone completely gorged themselves on the food especially two certain individuals. Now normally after eating we would all disperse but today however was different. After we finished eating Najenda decided to gather everyone's attention.

"Alright listen up, according to our spies General Esdeath has returned to the capital." At that sentence my a snarl formed on my face as my mood turned sour. Just mentioning the name of the person who destroyed my village was enough to piss me off. Akame and Kurome took notice of my expression and instantly knew what was wrong."Now when you're in the capital you are not unless absolutely necessary to confront her am I understood?" Everyone voiced their agreement.

I stood up from my seat and left the room leaving everyone behind. I walked out of Headquarters and started making my way through the lush forest just trying to clear my head of the rage that was building inside of me. I wanted nothing more than to make her suffer. She killed everyone in my village and I will get my revenge by making her die. As I was thinking of ways to end her life whether it be shoving Toripuru down her throat or ripping her limb from limb I failed to notice the duo that was quickly approaching me.

I felt hands grasp both of my shoulders and nearly pull out Toripuru before I found out it was Akame and Kurome.

"What are you two doing all the way out here?" I asked the duo.

"We came to check on you." Akame replied.

"Well as you can see I am completely fine." I said to the red eyed girl.

"Tatsumi, that's a load of bull and you know it." Kurome said. "We know what's wrong with you Tatsumi you been like this ever since Najenda mentioned that name. You should know by now if something is wrong with you neither of us is going to leave you alone until you are better." Akame nodded in agreement with her younger sister.

"I should have known better than to think I could hide this from the two of you huh? Honestly I can't even begin to thank either of you for all you have done for me. With you two I would have been dead a long time ago." I said this as I flashed them a grateful smile. I failed to notice the reddening of their cheeks. "Anyway we should head back to Headquarters."

Time Skip

Shortly after we had returned to base Najenda called a meeting for a new job. Everyone assembled in the main hall to see if this one would be interesting.

"The target this time...is the rumored serial killer that is plaguing the Capital. Late during the night he suddenly appears, and he decapitates the victims. It's unknown how many dozens of people he has killed so far. At least five guards have also fallen victim to this serial killer as well."

'Five guards not just an average person can fight a guard much less get away with killing five.'

"So I'm guessing either this guy is a some professional ex-army guy or has a Teigu right?" I asked to no one in particular.

"There's no mistake, it has to be Zank the Beheader." Lubbock stated.

"Who's that?" Kurome asked him.

"You don't know?" Mine intervened without amusement. "You really are a country bumpkin, huh?"

'Well this girl really knows how to make a person welcomed' I thought.

"Anyways the guy is probably Zank the Beheader." The pink-haired assassin turned her attention on us and began to go into his back story. "He originally worked at the Empire's greatest prison as their executioner. Because of the Prime Minister there were many people to be executed. Day after day, night after night, again and again, he took the heads of those on their knees pleading for their lives. It seems that after years of this, these beheadings became a nasty habit of his."

'No one normal would be able to execute that many people and still have some sanity left in them.'

"So, executing prisoners started not to be enough for him, so he became a serial killer." Mine nodded.

"He disappeared right around the time that a detainment force was sent out to find him but not after he stole the wardens Teigu. Who would think he'd be in the Capital?" Bulat looked utterly disgusted at the thought.

"I think I would like to meet this Teigu user. Teach him a lesson or two about how to use a Teigu properly." I said with a snarl.

"Don't worry Tatsumi, I'm sending everyone out in groups tonight so we can put an end to Zank. We know the general area is in but I will be dividing it among four groups" Najenda said.

"And who are in whose groups?" Akame asked the one eyed leader.

"Bulat and Lubbock will take the southern areas, Leone will take the eastern, Schere and Mine will take western, and you three will take the north." Everyone nodded in understanding.

 _Time Skip_

"Yeah." Akame nodded as she looked at the map. "Our search area is down this way." She said as she was leading Kurome and I down the dark streets of the capital. We had just arrived here minutes before and were currently trying to make our way to our assigned district.

"Seems like the people of the Capital are too scared of the killer to come out at night anymore huh." Kurome said as I looked around at the silent streets, besides our footsteps against the concrete tiles.

"Well I sure as hell hope he puts up a decent fight been a long time since we had one of those." I muttered as I passed Toripuru between my hands in anticipation. Suddenly Akame shoved us behind the wall with her hands over our mouths. I was about to say something when the running of feet caught my ears.

"It's the Capital's city guards. Even these guys have shown up, we need to be careful." She warned us and removed her hands. Nodding in agreement we trailed after her in silence. Something in the atmosphere was bothering me and I kept glancing around wearily. What I failed to notice was the silhouette of a man standing on the rooftop looking down at us.

"Hmm...In addition to serial killers, now professional killers show up." Zank chuckled with glee as he looked at the vicinity watching the groups. "My, what a dangerous city this is, hehe...Now then whose neck should I go after first?" Suddenly he snapped his fingers as if a light bulb lit up. "I got it! I should start with the most delicious one!"

"Do you think he'll show up tonight?" Kurome asked as she munched on her cookies. We decided to take a break and lounge about outside a little shop.

"I wouldn't put it past him," I commented and took a sip of my drink. "I think he'll show up sooner or later."

"Whether he decides to or not we still have to be on alert." Akame said with her eyes closed. Suddenly I stood up and excused myself, walking off to relieve myself in the restroom. After washing my hands I stepped out and noticed neither of the girls were here.

'Where the heck did they go?' My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of clashing metal. I began sprinting towards the source of the sound. When I arrived at the location I found Kurome standing over a wounded Akame as she was fighting some old geezer. Akame was laying on the ground her face whiter then normal, was pressing her hands on a large red splotch on her stomach. Just the sight of her being wounded my vision go red.

"Kurome!" I shouted. "Help Akame and don't let her die I'll handle this old man." I took a defensive stance in front of the girls as I looked into the eyes of the serial killer. "Sorry I would love to introduce myself but right now I don't give a shit since you hurt my friend you will pay miserably." I lashed out at him with Toripuru and just as the blade was about to connect with him he dodged at the last second like he knew where the blade was going to hit.

"So, I'm guessing that's what your Teigu does?" I said to the old man as I continued attacking.

"Bingo!" Zank exclaimed with happiness. "Teigu 'Spectator'. One of its five sight abilities, 'Insight' can read your thoughts by seeing your facial expressions, body language, and stuff like that. Think of it as an extreme form of observation."

'This guy is reminding me of a creepy old stalker.'

"Stalking before the kill is one of my hobbies after all. I used the power 'Farsight' to find your friends. Whether it's night, or foggy, I can see you clear as day!" He side-stepped as I lunged forward with a stab followed by a slash to the head, which he dodged at the last second. "Completely useless." He pointed to the eye on his forehead. "I can see everything going on in your head with my Teigu. Now I'm getting bored of this fight. Let me kill you so I can hurry and take your friend's head." With this he slashed at me with his blades trying to cut me to string cheese but I blocked them with ease.

"You should know this Zank, when two Teigu users fight one is bound to die." I said as I switched Toripuru from sapphire to emerald.

"Wait you have a Teigu?" This was actually the first time he failed to recognize that this was a battle to the death. "There's no way you have one of those, if you did I would've read it from your mind."

"I guess my rage is clouding that part of my mind." I said this as I slashed again. He tried blocked my blade with his but due to Toripuru being in emerald form his plan failed as my blade sunk into his flesh. I then began doing something I had never done with Toripuru and watched in fascination as the sword seemed to glow green.

"The voices have finally stopped. He smiled for once, a genuine smile. "I am thankful to you." With that he passed away in peace and I watched over his body for a little longer. His soul was free from his bindings as an executioner, he doesn't have to kill anymore.

"Tatsumi" I turned around to see Kurome desperately clinging to a pale Akame as a large pool of blood surrounded the duo. Wasting no time I sprinted full over to where Akame was. I ushered Kurome out of the way and saw the stomach wound Akame had received. It was pretty deep and had damage some internal organs. Knowing it was just a miracle she was still alive I began channeling the essence I stole from Zank into her. Slowly but surely the blood stopped flowing from the wound and the color began to return to her. Kurome looked at the wound as it closed and a big smiled crossed her face knowing her sister wasn't going to die.

She then turned to me and tackled me into a hug. "Tatsumi I'm so glad you showed up. When you left for the bathroom you walked out of a alley way from down the street somehow a minute later. Thinking it was you I followed and Akame followed me. Then you stopped in the middle of this place and I began to walk up to you to ask what was going on. Akame tried warning me it wasn't you but I caught on what she meant to late as he tried to stab me. Akame took the wound for herself."

She then looked down at her feet. "It's my fault. My fault she almost died. My fault you had to use one of your three uses in your trump card to save her." She was basically in tears by this point. I decided to stop her right there before she could say anything else.

"Kurome its no ones fault but Zanks. All that matters right now is that the two of you are alive and safe."

Her grip on me only got tighter. "Thanks Tatsumi you always know what to say." We stayed like that for who knows how long until Akame eyes began to open.

"What happened?" She asked as if she didn't even remember getting stabbed.

"That's a long story." I said. "I'll tell you what happened while we go tell the others of Zank's Demise." I then proceeded over to Zanks corpse and plucked the Teigu off his head. I took one last look at the dead serial killer before we left. 'If I keep killing will I turn out like him?' That was the last thought as Akame insisted I told her what happened. Surprisingly she took the news of getting stabbed and almost dying pretty well. She then proceeded to hug me as I told her how she was still alive.

"Thank you Tatsumi. Like you said earlier you would be dead without us, but the same is true for us without you we would be dead." As those words were said I couldn't help but feel something like I never felt before. It was like a spark of fire in my chest a second later it disappeared. Shrugging off the unusual feeling I flashed them a smile. "Let's go." And with that we began searching for our comrades.


	9. I hate Dogs

The soft sounds of my feet were the only thing I heard as I sprinted down a lone cobblestone road in the Capital. I had just finished a solo assassination assignment and was eager to get back to Headquarters. Sadly my luck didn't want me there. A sudden flash appeared at the edge of my vision. I barely managed to dodge the attacker. My eyes focused on the person who stood before me once the dust had settled. It was one of the Imperial Guards. A girl with orange hair tied into a ponytail clutching some weird dog like creature that was more than likely some kind of organic Teigu.

"I knew it." She spoke as she looked at the piece of paper in her hand which I got a small glimpse of. It was one of the wanted posters of me that had been displayed throughout the capital. "It's the same person that killed General Ogre. Hiding myself and waiting night after night was definitely worth it." She grinned like a psychopath and let at laugh that matched her grin, her body shivering with cold delight. "Finally I've finally tracked you down Night Raid member! I am Imperial Guard Forces, Seryu Ubiquitous and will also be the person to end your life!" She then pointed her finger at me "In the name of justice I will absolutely make you evil-doers pay here and now!"

"So I take it that you're either that old man's wife or daughter wanting revenge?" I asked dryly. I clearly struck a nerve within the lunatic girl.

"I was his apprentice. He was there for me after my father died. My father was a man of justice. No matter what happens, I will deliver justice! For my father who fell in the line of duty to villains like you! And for my beloved teacher who was murdered by you and your friends! After I kill you I will hunt down the others and kill them just like you. You will never be forgiven!" The orange-haired soldier responded with a twisted smile that showed not a single spec of sanity in it.

"Alright crazy let's just finish this fight. I got two girls cooking dinner and they have probably eaten my share by now." I unsheathed Toripuru and switched it to Sapphire mode.

The dog-looking Teigu slid forward before he started transforming. He grew to a size that would rival a tree while his fangs grew as sharp and deadly as an average sword.

'Well looks like I am going to have some fun tonight.' I thought as I tried to come up with a strategy.

"Koro! Prey!" Seryu ordered and Koro jumped at me, I side stepped cut him down with my Teigu, spraying his blood onto the ground when he crashed. Not soon after his impact he rose up once more full repaired. He was towering over me with a smile that looked just like his owners.

'Great so I got to turn doggy here into mincemeat as I try to find his core. I readied my blade again as I began to start slashing at the dog before a gunshot rang through the air. Pain erupted in my left shoulder as blood began seeping through the wound.

'Shit!' I spent too much time worrying about fido here I forgot that psycho was there on the side.' Seryu said nothing as she continued to rain bullets on me with her twin pistols. I either dodged or sliced at the bullets to prevent myself from suffering another wound. Seryu clearly getting annoyed by my constant dodging of bullets decided to make it easier for herself.

"Koro, Arms." At the command the giant dog's tiny hands grew into the length of giant sized arms with massive muscles. They looked like they could topple a building with little to no effort.

I sliced another bullet in half before I sprinted away from the over-muscled mutt in attempt to kill Seryu to shut him down.

"Koro! Pulverize!" Seryu ordered. The ground began to shake at an alarming rate behind me. I felt his fist missing by a hair as the wind from his attacks hit me. Knowing I wouldn't make it to Seryu in time I jumped in the air and landed behind the now red mutt. Trying to buy myself some time I began slashing at every part of his skin in attempt to either slow him down or somehow get a lucky shot on his core. Apparently he wasn't fazed at all as he turned around and landed a hard punch on me sending me flying into the nearby fountain.

Pain clouded my vision as I struggled to stand up. When my vision finally cleared I was greeted by the sight of the twin barrels of Seryu's guns staring at me.

"Any last words evil-doer?" She asked as the grin if possible grew some more.

'Akame, Kurome, I'm sorry. I couldn't win this fight.' I closed my eyes in acceptance as I wanted the sound of the shot that would end my life.

Bang! I heard the shot and felt no different than before. 'I thought pain was suppose to go away when you died. Wait I can still hear the fountain.' Opening my eyes I was greeted with a shocked Seryu staring at two figures. It was Mine and Schere. Mine had shot Seryu's hands off at the last second.

"See I told you Schere, the stupid bug couldn't handle a simple assignment." I never thought I would happier to see the annoying pinkette. Schere approached me as Seryu was still standing still as she couldn't believe how close she was not the kill and had it taken from her.

"Tatsumi can you stand?" Schere asked as she stood guard in front of me.

Grunted in pain as I wobbled to stand up I managed to respond with a "Yes."

Koro apparently tired of the action being gone decided to leap towards us. He was cut off however as a massive laser beam came from Mine's Pumpkin. The beam got a perfect head-shot as it completely evaporated his head. He flopped the ground and actually ended up bowling over Seryu in the process. Noticing this was our chance to escape I motioned to Schere and we ran or in my case stumbled over to Mine.

"Come on let's go while we got this chance." I said in a hasty voice.

"What!? Why? She is down on the ground right now and there are three of us we could easily win!" She said it like she wasn't fighting a Teigu user but was a petty thief stealing bread from a homeless man.

"Mine that is an organic Teigu they are ridiculously hard to kill. Not to mention the sound of the fountain breaking along with a giant beast hitting everything plus gunshots are definitely going to attract some more guards over here. Let's get out while we still can." She looked like she wanted to argue with me but nodded. With that we started running to get the hell out of there.

* * *

When we finally got back to Headquarters I was in a complete mess. My shoulder was aching and blood was coming out of it. I had hastily put on a importu bandage on it after we left the Capital but it had become undone. Other than that my back felt like Bulat had danced on it for a couple hours straight and my head was hurting worse than a hangover.

When we entered the front door to base we were greeted with everyone else from Night Raid standing there.

"Hey guys welcome ba…" Leone cut herself off as she saw the condition I was in.

"Tatsumi!" Akame and Kurome came running forth and grabbed me into a hug. The hug only made my shoulder and back ache in more pain.

"Ouch. Easy girls please I'm in a lot of pain right now." They both looked up in worry and a little apologetic as they backed off.

"Let's get Tatsumi to the infirmary and after we get him patched up we can hear his story." Najenda said. Everyone made their way towards the infirmary where Lubbock patched my shoulder up and gave me some painkillers.

"So care to tell us what the hell beat you up?" Najenda asked the question everyone wanted to know. I decided to get the rundown version of the story.

"Pretty simple really. I met a psycho girl with a organic Teigu. Got distracted by the Teigu and I got shot by the girl. I tried to destroy the core or kill the girl but that ended up with me getting the shit beaten up out of me before she had me at gunpoint. Luckily mine shot her hands and saved my ass. After that she shot the Teigu, Koro and made it stumble onto his master and that gave us the opportunity to escape." Everyone looked at me in sympathy of nearly getting killed. "On the bright side I completed the job." At this everyone gave a small laugh. Only I could say something like that after being so close to death. We talked a little after that about the Teigu and the girl before everyone started to trickle out one by one until it was just me, Akame, and Kurome.

"So did you guys save me any food?" I asked them to get off the subject we were previously talking about. I didn't get a response as both of them gave me a meek look. "Oh well, not like I expected any at all when the two must gluttonous girls in the world are cooking. At this a scowl formed on their faces as they both lightly slugged me in the gut. It hurt a little but not too much. They then got a serious look on their faces.

"Tatsumi..." Kurome began. "Promise us that you won't ever go out alone again." I tried to start a argument but was hushed as Akame gave a glare with a nod. I took a look in their eyes and could tell that either of them would do anything within their power to make sure I didn't go out alone again. I finally nodded in acceptance since I knew I would never come close to even winning this argument with the two of them. They both gave me a happy smile as they climbed into the bed with me. "Goodnight." was the last word I said before my world faded to nothing.


	10. The Most Idiotic Plan Ever

**Sorry for missing the update last week. A fellow writer asked me to adopt his stories since he will be indisposed for a undetermined amount of time so I decided to help him out. Please check out my profile for his stories as they will most likely be posted soon after this is. Anyways enjoy the chapter.**

It was currently tense in the meeting that was going on at base. All of the us members were in the meeting area in a very heated argument. I had only proposed a very simple plan that would allow me to eliminate the Capitals strongest general but apparently no one else agreed due to how dumb and idiotic it sounded when I first presented the basics of the plan.

"For the last time Tatsumi, no means no! You will not go find and attack Esdeath since she will kill you! How many times do I need to repeat this to get it through your thick skull?" Najenda barked at me. We had been currently arguing over this issue for the last ten minutes and she has not budged a single inch on the issue. Only one of those minutes were spent proposing the plan and the other nine were spent with Najenda lecturing me about what I should not ever pick a fight with Esdeath.

"Shes right you stupid bug. You couldn't even kill a girl and her mutt. Do you think you have a chance at killing the strongest of the empire?" Mine asked smugly. I turned my attention towards her and looked her dead in the eyes to show her how serious I was.

"Mine, if you saw what I saw, knew what I knew, you would do anything to kill the ice general." I then turned towards Najenda again. "It's not like I am going to challenge her without a plan." I reached for the folded piece of paper in my pocket and handed it to Najenda. "For some reason she is holding a fighting tournament. The prize is a mystery itself but the thing is she personally gives it to the victor. I can easily just disguise myself, enter the tournament and win. When she presents my prize I will sink my blade into her and get the hell out of there." I said this like it was the simplest thing in the world. Truth is I had no idea how I would escape but eh who cares as long as I get to kill Esdeath I am happy.

Najenda was looking at the poster during my whole explanation. She looked up but this time instead of denial in her eyes I saw a glimpse of hope. "It does seem like a good plan but there are some unaccountable things that could easily end up with you being killed almost if not instantly." She said to me.

"And what would those things be? I hope your not worrying about infantry Toripuru can easily slaughter a thousand regular men." I said with confidence as I switched the gem in Toripuru to the ruby.

She gave a little thought before she spoke again. "Well besides that there are the three beasts Esdeath's personal henchmen each of them wielding a Teigu and are incredibly experience in battle. Even if you can kill them what about General Budo? I'm sure if he heard another General died in the Capital he would go over there to kill the person who would dare have the guts to challenge a person of importance. Lets not forget about the organic Teigu user either." I had to admit she had some good points, there was no way I could kill that many Teigu users. Before I could come up with a solution Lubbock began to speak.

"I got an idea that may work. If Tatsumi here can kill Esdeath and get out of the fighting area and lead any pursuers down a specified alley some of us could be hidden there to ambush any pursuers and kill them as well. I can fill the whole alley with wires and let Tatsumi get to a safe spot in it and tear anything else to shreds." I gave a nod of respect to him. I gotta give Lubbock more credit that was a pretty decent idea with a good success chance.

"I'll watch the fight itself and hide in plain sight in the crowd of spectators. If needed I will transform into Lionel and whisk him away from there after he's killed her." Leone said. I gave her a nod of appreciation. With her in Lionel form my chance of getting away from any pursuers was greatly increased.

Najenda turned towards the green haired pervert before she asked another question. "That would work but only on ground pursuers. What if they chased Tatsumi from the rooftops or if Budo is flying after him.

This time Mine decided to speak up. "Schere can guard me while I setup on the rooftops to stop Budo if he goes after him I can easily gun him down. After all I am a genius sniper!" She said in her usual smug tone. "Besides I doubt Kurome and Akame aren't gonna sit around twiddling their thumbs while Tatsumi does this. They can stand nearby on the roofs to make sure no one gets near him." Both of them nodded in agreement with her statement.

Najenda began to ponder this plan. Personally I thought this would work out pretty well. We get to kill the strongest Teigu user and probably some others. She looked me dead in the eyes before she gave a nod. "If everyone does what they should this should work out well. But I am giving a warning to you all now. If Esdeath for some reason is not killed get out of there. Get out of there and stay alive." We all nodded. She then turned to Bulat. "I know you're on wanted posters so I want you to use in Incursio's invisibility to assist Tatsumi in any way possible if needed. He gave a nod to her.

"All right everyone lets get started with the most idiotic plan ever!" I exclaimed while raising a fist in the air. Everyone else followed in example with their own shouts of approval.


	11. Rule 1: Don't Screw Up

There are many rules when it comes to making and acting out a plan. The first one which is the hardest to follow is to not screw up. That was what I was thinking as I stood in front of the Colosseum. Everyone else had already reached their positions around five minutes ago and here I stood like a fool staring at the applicant form. Deciding if I didn't sign it now I never would I hastily jotted down my name and handed it to the man who was taking them. He then ushered me inside was what I assume the waiting room for the applicants.

Inside was just a hard wooden bench and nothing else was inside the small room. The room itself was old and more than likely never repaired due to all the massive fractures in the hard stone floor. I sat there reviewing the plan inside my head. Win the tournament, get the reward if it interested me, kill ice bitch, and then get the hell out of here. This plan was either gonna be written down in history as the most unlikely plan that had ever worked or my death sentence. My thoughts were interrupted as a loud feminine voice boomed from outside the room.

"Peasants, today you have the glorious honor of watching one of my subjects engage in combat. You should count yourselves lucky to even be in the same mile as me so today is probably gonna be the most special out of the other days of your pathetic miserable lives." The voice paused for a minute before it continued. "I would love to say there is gonna be a good long day of blood and gore but there was only one person stupid enough to enter."

'Now that the voice mentioned it I really am the only one in here.' A quick survey of the room just proved her words. 'Why didn't anyone but me enter this tournament? Is it because of the subject I have to fight?' My thoughts were soon interrupted by the voice again.

"This talk is getting boring so it's time to start the blood show! Come on out you poor dumbass." The door that led into the arena suddenly froze solid with ice before a resounded crack entered the air as the frozen door broke into tiny pieces. I got up and entered the arena.

The first thing I noticed was the sound of the audience. I scanned the crowd for Leone and found her in the middle of the third row. I made eye contact with her and noticed a bit of unease on her face. She quickly mouthed the words 'Don't get caught by chains.' I gave a nod to her even though I didn't really understand what she meant. I looked up into the main seat in the arena where I saw Esdeath surrounded by what I assumed were her three beasts. Just looking at her made my blood boil. The next thing I noticed was my opponent.

He was around seven feet in height. Gigantic muscles adorned his body and his face was obscured by a hood to where you could only see his mouth. Inside both of his massive hands were a few feet of chain. So this is the chains she warned me about. Wait Esdeath said this was one of her subjects and they are known to wield Teigus. 'You gotta be kidding me! I got to fight a Teigu user before I get to kill Esdeath this is not gonna be fun.'

The sound of a gong going off issued the start of the fight and I drew my regular sword just in time to block a chain that shot forward. 'Dang he's fast.' I knew this was going to be a unfair fight with my regular sword but I could use that to my advantage. I could make it seem like I lost and lose my sword and before he finishes me i grab Toripuru and end him. He began spinning on the spots and the chains in his hand began to lengthen as they flew through the air at a blinding speed. I managed to duck at the last second and I felt the chains take a few pieces of hair off the top of my head. The hooded man only grunted in annoyance.

I decided to put my plan into action as I ran towards him jumping or blocking any attack he threw at me. When I made it to less than five feet from him he began to try and constrict me with his chains. Knowing this was my chance I made a bad block that allowed him to rip the sword from my hand. At this a grin formed on his face and he wrapped both chains around my legs knocking me to the ground. I heard his slow steady footsteps as he approached me. Once he was on top of me he bent down and whispered some words into my ear.

"United oath of darkness, kind of all shadows, I hereby cleanse this soul from your grasp." I had now idea what his words meant but I knew this fight would be over in the next minute. He pulled out a dagger and began to pull it back to strike the final blow. Not wasting anytime I faked me looking hopeless by putting my right arm in front of my eyes and quickly grabbed out Toripuru. I swung the blade at his gut and heard the sound of flesh being broken. I moved my right arm to see warm blood cascade down from his wound.

Then something weird happened I looked at the chains beneath me so i could cut them of but they melted into shadows before the seemed to flow onto my calf. I didn't get a chance to see what happened as the Esdeath spoke.

"Now this is a surprise. My subject actually fell in battle. Well it's not like I care, the weak die in battle and the strong prevail. This challenger has definitely earned his reward." As she said this I noticed a slight amount of pink on her cheeks which I mistook for hidden anger. After I got my opponents corpse off me I stood up and noticed that Esdeath had jumped down into the arena.

'This is it, just get the reward and kill her and then follow the plan. Just don't screw up no pressure at all.' She approached me and that's when shit hit the fan. The air everywhere turned blue like ice and the next thing I know from the other end of the arena she is now behind me with a collar around my neck.

"Your prize is me." With that she knocked me out cold.


	12. Dreams

**Pain. Destruction. Suffering.**

These were the thoughts that were tormenting my mind. I was in a barren area devoid of all signs of life. The sky was non existent and neither were any other colors besides gray and black. I was on the ground with my knees pulled towards my chest as I clutched my head in absolute agony. Those words kept repeating over and over while vision appeared. One moment it was a Akame with her throat slit, the next it was Kurome and all of her bones were broken, the last vision was my village as it was burned into the ground.

I just wanted this nightmare to end. I was barely holding on to my sanity as the words and visions flashed before me.

"Just let it end." I whispered in pain. Surprisingly it did. Both the words and visions stopped but some sort of power began to gather in the area. After what seemed like all of the power had gather color shown in existence as a pair of red eyes appeared in front of me.

"Do you want this to end?" A raspy voice that held ancient power said. I assumed the speaker was the pair of eyes that looked like they were staring down to my very soul.

"Yes." I said wanting to never suffer this nightmare again. A deep chuckle was heard as the ancient being seemed pleased with my response.

"Then embrace the power that you posses."

"Power? I asked

"Yes young one, you posses the power of the shadow king." The voice said the last part with a bit of awe and respect.

"Shadow king?" As far as I knew there were no kings but only the emperor in.

"Yes long ago there was a king like no other. He made the first five Teigu to ever exist. These five Teigu are more ancient and powerful than any other Teigu since they were made centuries before the rest were made. You posses two of them right now actually. Toripuru the one that you are most acquainted with was the second of the five to be made. The ones your two companions wield are also part of the legendary five."

"You said I had two Teigu, but I only have one and besides you can't wield more than one Teigu at a time." I told the being.

"Normally yes. But these five Teigu are more powerful and were capable of being wielded at the same time. Besides don't you remember what happened during the fight yesterday?" It's true the Teigu that was being wielded by my opponent disappeared. The being then continued to talk. "So you remembered. That chain he was wielding was me and I controlled him and to make sure he would be chosen to fight you in the tournament. A king is suppose to have his full arsenal after all."

"If you wanted me to have you then why did you fight me yesterday?" I asked him.

"Would you want to be wielded by a king that couldn't kill a simpleton?" He rebutted. Okay he has a point. "So now that you wield two of the Teigu and two others are wielded by the ones you trust the most you have two options. The first is to train with me and Toripuru and master us and then do option two. The second option is two acquire the final Teigu and then train to master all three of us."

"What about Akame and Kurome they wield two of the five would they have to train as well?"

"Of course the mastery of the five legendary Teigu is important for the survival of all life."

"The survival of all life?" I asked not thinking I heard that right.

"Indeed. When light is born so is darkness. The legendary five have a enemy. This darkness is a monster which one day will arise and attempt to end all life. This monster is the thing that attacks you during your sleep. As you have noticed when you and your companions slept together it kept him away. That is because three of the five have the power to repel his mental attacks. So if you acquire the fifth you would never suffer from his attacks again. And with the five Teigu together you can fight and end the monster once and for all."

"So where do I get the fifth one?" I asked him.

The Teigu gave a chuckle before responding. "Don't worry I have arranged for that to happen. In the mean time we need to discuss about your current situation. You are captured by Esdeath the person who you hate most. Now I know this is going to be something you don't wanna hear but do not kill her or attempt to when you awake."

"Why the hell not?" I asked with anger in my voice.

"You need to escape her clutches and make her furious in the process. This will cause her to start doing drastic things to reclaim you."

"Why would she want me?" I asked.

I could tell the Teigu was struggling to contain its laughter. "Well the thing is she is in love with you."

That was not what I was expecting. "Your joking right?"

"Afraid not she is laying next to you as you sleep."

I let out a low sigh as I cursed my luck. "So why do we need her to do something drastic?"

"I got a feeling this will cause her to request other Teigu users to aid her. This will result in the fifth Teigu falling into your hands.

"Alright and what does the last Teigu look like."

"It is called the meteor necklace but that is not the true name. The problem is the trump card is unknown but it grants the user extreme regeneration."

"Sounds useful. By the way I never asked what do I even call you?."

"I am cursed chains so just call me curse." The Teigu said his name with pride.

"Well curse lets work hard together." I said.

"I'm sure we will my king." Curse replied.

With that I felt myself waking up.


	13. Three Beasts

There are many different ways to wake up. You can wake up with a blindfold on. You can wake up with your wrist and ankles bound together by chains. Heck I even had a collar around my neck. If that doesn't make it bad enough you can wake up with Esdeath using you as a body pillow. This was definitely in the top three worst experiences of my life which was pretty impressive since I have such crappy luck.

"mmm..." I heard Esdeath mumble in her sleep.

'Alright good she is still asleep.' I thought to myself

 _'Be grateful kid.'_ I heard a voice that didn't belong to me say in my head. It took me a bit to realize whose voice it was.

'Curse? How the heck are you talking to me?' I asked.

'Well you see I have a small part of a biological inside me which allows me to communicate through thoughts. Just be grateful cause I can help you get out of crappy situations like this.' He replied.

'Alright mister fancy biological how the heck am I going to escape?'

'Wait until she wakes up and go with the flow until you get a prime opportunity to escape.' Behold the wise ideas of a Teigu something a two year old can come up.

'Great idea Curse, that was such a gre-' My thought was interrupted as Esdeath shifted in the bed probably signifying her waking up.

"Oh good your awake." She said excitedly.

I remained silent as I tried to control my anger of hearing her voice.

"Oh come on now don't give me the silent treatment. After all we are going to become very familiar with each other." She said in a sultry tone. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to gag or rip her head off. I finally decided to ask a question.

"Why?"

"Why what?" She asked.

"Why did you knock me out?"

She gave a soft laugh before she answered. "Simple really, I love you. You are mine and you will never escape from me so get used to it and accept me." Those words helped me decide that I would first rip her head off then burn her corpse.

I tried getting off the bed to get away from her but due to the shackles and everything else I ended up face planting on the ground. I managed to feel around and found the grip of Toripuru. I used the blade to remove the blindfold that was covering my eyes. My vision after it had recovered from the darkness showed a beautiful four poster bed with a not so beautiful blue haired individual on it.

"I suggest you let me go before I get annoyed." I told her.

"Now why would I d-" She was interrupted when a pure energy beam shot through the window and manged to knock my collar. Another two beams soon followed ripping of the chains off my wrist and ankles.

 _'There's your opportunity run now!"_ Curse shouted in my head.

Taking a chance I did something stupid and jumped out the window. Now why was this stupid? Well lets see I was somewhere around a couple hundred feet from the ground.

 _'If you wanna live summon me and throw me towards the wall.'_ I obliged and felt a small tingling sensation on my calf as I summoned the chain. I noticed it was the same as it was before except on one end of the chain there was a sharp spike. I began to twirl the chain in my hands at launched the spike ended part of the chain at the wall. It sunk into the stone of the building but didn't hold and started ripping away at the blocks beneath it due to my momentum. Luckily it finally caught and saved me from the ground by a couple of feet.

I ripped the chain from the wall and landed on the ground just in time to see a blue blur leap from the window. I began to panic a bit about what to do before I felt Curse moving on his own. One end of the chain began to sink into the ground while the other somehow knocked Esdeath out and began to submerge her into the ground.

'Curse just what was that?' I asked in bewilderment.

 _'That was my trump card Dead Coffin. It pretty much makes the person on the receiving end take a prolonged break underground to the point that they die from lack of air.'_ He said this all with pride. I couldn't blame him he pretty much just killed Esdeath.

I began to look around before I saw a energy shot hit between my legs. I looked for the source and barely saw a tad bit of pink from a rooftop miles away. I was even surprised I could see her but then again a figure in all pink is a little hard to miss especially when said figured fired another shot so close to my head that it shaved the edge of some of my hairs off.

'Well Mine sure knows how to snipe. I gotta remember to thank her for that later.' I began to sprint towards what was hopefully the exit to the courtyard before I was intercepted by a group of three males. One of them was pretty fat and had long spiky blonde hair. In his hands was a axe that looked like it could cleave many man in half. Next to him was a tall man with a grey hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. The final one of the three was the shortest. He had blonde hair and to be honest I almost mistook him for a girl.

I pulled out Toripuru and began to ready myself for combat. At this the midget brought a flute up to his lips and the old man began to fiddle with something on one of his fingers. The one with the axe readied it in one hand and spoke to me.

"Hold it brat, we go orders from the boss to make sure you come back alive. So put down your weapon or we will take you back alive but just barely." He said this like he was actually giving me a choice but I knew he was gonna fight me either way.

I slashed at him with Toripuru and a blade of water intercepted me. The old guy just smirked at my reaction. The sound of music began to play from the boy with the flute. It was a sweet melody that felt like it would lull me to sleep.

'Curse I need some help here!' I asked the Teigu hoping he would have some solution to help me deal with the three Teigu users.

 _'Give me a minute and I can do something that will help but until then stay alive!.'_ I decided to trust him and began to look around for anything that might provide me cover. My thoughts were getting a little sluggish due to the music that it was getting hard to move at my normal speed. I decided the only way to nullify the charm of the music would be to make my brain focus on something else. I raised Toripuru and made a small incision on my right cheek. It stung but it worked as the music began to have almost no charm in it anymore.

I heard the sound of something whooshing and barely raised Toripuru in time to block the axe fat boy had thrown at me. I looked around for the other two and saw the geezer near a fountain raising large amounts of water from it. Before I could look for the other one I felt the flesh of my leg being torn as he took out a good chunk of it out with the dagger in his hands.

'Curse hurry!'

 _'DONE! Just shout the words "Chained Blade" and you will be fine.'_ I had not idea what words would do to help me put I shouted them out.

"CHAINED BLADE!" Instantly Toripuru began to glow and I saw its shape began to morph as well. My enemies also noticed this and stopped their movements to watch what was happening as well. When the glow stopped I barely recognized my blade. It was pitch black and there was three veins of color running down the blade. One red, blue, and green.

'Curse just what the heck can did you do?' I honestly could not believe the power that Curse held as a Teigu his powers were unbelievable.

 _'That was my ace in the hole. I can fuse myself with any of the other legendary five Teigu.'_

'Anything I should know about this blade?' I asked still entranced by its beauty.

 _'The name is obviously Chained Blade. Its trump card is making the weapons of the enemy sprout chains and bind the enemy to the ground. Its ace in the hole is locked since it needs a counterpart Teigu.'_ I had not idea what an ace in the hole was but I really didn't care right now since I had a chance to fight now.

I raised the blade and activated its trump card. True to Curses word chains sprouted from the three Teigus and bound my enemies to the ground. But I failed to realize one thing. The old man can use his when not moving and the fatty can just throw his again. I decided to take advantage of my enemies confusion and I leaped towards fatty and cleaved him in two. I turned around and crouched as water spears were being hurled passed me. I also noticed that two water swords had freed him and the midget.

I charged towards the midget and swung my blade and met his dagger midway.

"You really shouldn't have killed him you know? I am going to skin you alive and make you feel pain which you have never experienced before." The blonde boy said in a highly sadistic tone. I couldn't help but notice at how his smile reminded me of Zank.

I decided to test a theory to see if Toripuru's original abilities would work and I willed the green vein to work. To my surprise it glowed brightly and the other two colors faded to non-existence. I swung again at the child as he grinned cockily as he braced to block my attack. I couldn't help but laugh at his surprised expression when he felt Toripuru pierce him.

I let his lifeless form fall to the floor. I turned around expecting to be hit by more water spears and was immediately slammed into the ground by a giant wall of water. The impact nearly made me lose my grip of my sword but I managed to plant it into the ground to stop the water from knocking my father away. When the water finally ended I spit out the water that had entered my mouth and took huge breaths to regain my oxygen.

I knew I was near my limit and I had to end this fight quickly. I saw the old man on a giant pillar of water with several dragons circling around him. I stood up and readied myself when I saw Toripuru fade from existence and I felt a burning sensation on my calf and my chest. I didn't even have time to question what happened as I was attacked viciously by the dragons. The slammed into me continuously and kept opening wounds across my body. Just when I thought I was about to die the onslaught of dragons came to an end. I fell to the ground in a bloody heap.

My vision was fading to where I could barely see and I knew I was at death's door. I heard the sound of footsteps and looked to see the old man above me with a water sword in his hands. I also noticed a small trail of blood coming down his ears. He readied his blade above my head preparing to execute me. I closed my eyes and awaited the blade to end my life.

I heard the sound of flesh being ripped apart. I felt no pain. Strange I thought death was suppose to be painful. I then noticed I wasn't dead and opened my eyes. I looked to see the remains of a energy shot piercing the old mans head.

'Mine. I really owe her now.' I knew even with him dead unless I received immediate medical attention I was going to die here. My whole body started to feel cold and I began closing my eyes before something caught my vision. I looked but the thing I saw was gone. I blamed it on me dying and began closing my eyes again before something appeared before me. It was someone in a very familiar suit of armor.

"Bulat?" I asked weakly.

"Yeah it's me Tatsumi whatever you do don't close your eyes your going to be-" I didn't hear the rest of his words as I succumbed to the world of darkness.

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter. So anyways I need some idea's for Teigu trump cards so please post your ideas in the reviews.**


	14. My Anchor

**Hey guys before the chapter starts there are two things I wanna discuss. One involving this story the other not. The first is I need ideas for trump cards for Teigu so please review your ideas. The second thing is I posted a new story called Orphans on my profile so if you wanna check it out go ahead. Anyways thanks for putting up with this annoying authors note so enjoy the chapter.**

Have you ever felt like you had been run over by an elephant and then been tap danced on by twenty gorillas? Let me tell you it is not a pleasant feeling. My mind was awake while my body felt like absolute crap as I laid in a bed. I could hear what sounded like voices but they were just mumbles to my ears. I could also feel multiple presences around me including two of them right next to me. I finally felt my body to reawakened which lessened the pain a bit but not by much. I barely cracked my eyes open and shut that almost instantly as the sunlight nearly blinded me.

"Someone do me a favor and blow up the sun. It's way too bright in here." I mumbled.

"TATSUMI!" Everyone shouted once they heard me mumbled those words signifying me finally being awake. Following the shout I felt a twin set of arms surrounding me.

I once again opened my eyes and squinted as the harsh light once again assaulted them. After I had gotten used to the light I cracked my eyes fully open to see that I was the medical bay back at the base. All of the Night Raid members were in here either standing around my bed or like two certain individuals on the bed with me. One thing I did notice however was that one of the other beds were taken up. I looked over and saw Bulat sitting on it with a heavy bandage on one of his shoulders.

"Bulat what happened?" I asked him. I mean seriously he was Bulat it was very rare when someone could land a hit on him so whoever did must had been a fearsome opponent.

"Your crazy fangirl is what happened." He said in a dry tone. "After you had passed out I picked you up and was carrying you away when all of a sudden the earth erupted revealing one pissed of Esdeath. She threw ice lances at me and one managed to clip me while I was running away. She would have done more but luckily I ran to where Lubbock had set up some wires." I couldn't believe it she was still alive. But how is she alive? She was underground for a while so she should have died from lack of air.

'Curse any ideas?'

 _'I got one but if it's true we might be in big trouble. She has the power over ice which is another form of water. What many people don't know is that water is made up of oxygen. So if she has mastered her Teigu enough to separate oxygen from her abilities and somehow control the explosion that is caused by it then she is far more deadly than every other regular Teigu.'_ I was surprised at his words. I had never heard Curse talk about anything with the worried tone he had now.

'Just how dangerous is she?' I asked in a worried tone that nearly matched?

 _'Let me just say this. If she wanted, she could destroy the planet within a day.'_ My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets at that information. _'But I don't think that is likely. From using that power too many times she would kill herself in the process.'_ Curse said as he tried to comfort me a bit.

I returned my attention to everyone and noticed they all were staying at me oddly.

"What?" I asked them.

"You were kind of spacing out there maybe you should get some more rest." Najenda said.

"Oh no I wasn't spacing out I was just talking to someone in my head." I then realized that I sounded like a complete lunatic. "Let me rephrase that I was talking to a Teigu inside of my head." I don't think that helped as they were still staring at me like a lunatic.

"Alright the bug has brain damage. Time to exterminate him!." Mine said as she pointed Pumpkin at me. I summoned curse in my hands and began doing a small twirl to where it would shield me if she shot. Luckily she didn't shoot instead she almost dropped Pumpkin in surprise.

"Hey I thought Tatsumi had a sword?" Schere asked in confusion. She then began looking at the title of her book again as she almost cried at being this big of a airhead that she didn't know her own teammates weapons.

"Care to explain this?" Lubbock asked.

I gave the green haired assassin a chuckle before I began to explain to everyone how I had gotten curse. I even explained how he was one of the legendary five Teigu and how he was biological and could meld with any of the other legendary five. The one thing I left out however was the darkness the supposed enemy of the legendary five.

"Seriously Mine, I'm surprised you didn't say anything to them. After all you were providing sniper support during the fight with the Three Beasts so you should have saw Chained Blade when I fused Toripuru and Curse together.

"So let me get this straight. You can wield any of the legendary five Teigu and fuse them together? Man you are way too overpowered. But I'm not one to complain since we are on the same side." Lubbock said.

"When I first saw the kid I knew he was special. But dang never imagined him to be a diamond in a pigs trough." Leone said with pride.

"So anyways whats the plan now?" I asked no one in particular. I felt tugging on both of my eyes and looked down into the eyes of the sisters. I sighed as I knew what they wanted. "Alright fine I won't do anything else today." I said this as I lowered myself back into the bed. I raised my head to say one last thing before I forgot it.

"By the way thanks Mine. You saved my ass without you I would have been toast." A look of pride and arrogance washed over her face.

"Yeah yeah don't mention bug." With that she left the room and the other members soon followed leaving me alone with Akame and Kurome. I looked at the two of them to find agitated expressions on their faces.

"So on a scale of one to ten how mad are you?" I asked weakly with a sweat drop. I got an answer I never would have suspected as I soon felt two pairs of lips connecting with my own, one on each half of my mouth. My brain nearly overloaded at the number of sensations that soon flooded through me. Their lips were so soft that it felt like I was in eternal bliss. They soon removed their lips from my own before Kurome spoke.

"You can't keep doing stuff like that Tatsumi." She said as a few tears began to gather in her eyes. Akame decided to speak on her sisters behalf.

"She is right each time something like this happens you come closer and closer to death. What if you don't come back?" By the time Akame finished saying this a few tears were streaming down her eyes. I felt like crap as their words stung me to my very soul. I kept forgetting every time I got hurt it just wasn't me that was getting hurt but them as well. I raised a finger to each of their faces and wiped the tears from their eyes. I then engulfed the two into a hug.

"Don't worry I promise no matter what I will always come back. You two are my anchor to this world and as long as I have you both I will always keep coming back." To make sure they understood how serious I was, I kissed them both on the lips something which they eagerly enjoyed.

"Promise?" They both asked in sync.

"Promise." I said immediately. Satisfied with my answer they kissed me on the cheek as they clung to me and rested their heads on my shoulders. With that we fell asleep happy we were together.

 **Don't forget to put your Teigu trump card ideas in the reviews!**


	15. Repent thy sins

"So anyways I need you, Kurome, and Akame to go find and kill this guy." Najenda said.

Currently we were in the meeting room and Najenda had just assigned us a target. Ever since the Three Beasts had died Esdeath had sough out new minions. The response was great as around twenty people were accepted in by her. So basically close to half of the known Teigus were her henchman. Luckily most had not yet arrived in the capital and were still on their way there. That is why Najenda was assigning everyone in groups to go find and kill as many of these individuals as soon as possible.

"You know what the target's Teigu is?" I asked the one eyed leader as she let out a puff of smoke.

"No data on it but apparently the guys name is Sin." I gave her a nod and we departed the room.

* * *

 **Some time later**

"So after we kill this guy can we go get some food?" Kurome asked as she continued munching on her cookies.

I sighed at her antics. "After all of the time we have known each other I will never understand either of your appetites."

"We're growing girls so we need our energy." Akame said as she stole a cookie from Kurome.

"Fine. After this I'll treat both of you to food." Both of them seemed happy with this as they continued eating cookies.

I found myself growing a tad bit bored walking down the dirt road we were on. Either side of the road was filled with tall lush pine trees. The sound of wildlife was evident in the area. Luckily for my bored mind I spotted something peculiar down the road. A lone traveler was walking down the road but the odd thing was the color of his face and clothes. There were colorful triangles all aligned on his body. The colors were green, gray red, pink, white, yellow, and orange.

"Something tells me this is the guy." I said to the girls. They nodded their head in agreement and put away the cookies. We continued walking down the road until we were within talking distance of the guy.

"You Sin?" I asked the guy. Suddenly his face and clothes turned yellow.

"You sure are lucky to have those beautiful girls next to you." The color then turned pink. "Ah yes after I kill you I will have some fun with those two." This guy was beginning to piss me off as his color changed again to white. "Yes I am Sin and prepare to repent your sins." He cockily said.

Akame and Kurome both pulled at their blades and I pulled out Toripuru.

"Sorry creep but we are not dying to a pervert like you. We will not die that easily." Kurome said.

"Ah such pride coming from one as beautiful as yourself. It's time to repent!" Sin said as his body began to glow.

"Just shut up and die! I wanna go eat." Akame said.

"Ah gluttony one of the more pleasurable sins. Oh how I love your sinful nature!" His color then exploded and momentarily blinded me. When I regained vision I checked the girls to notice they were also blinded. When I looked back at Sin there was seven of him each one a different color from before. The only difference besides that was the weapons they used and the armor one of them had.

"Um anyone else notice seven of them?" I asked.

"Yeah this could be a problem." Kurome replied.

I began to assess the situation and came up with a plan. "Akame take care of the orange and yellow, Kurome take care of pink and white I will handle the rest." Both of them nodded and went to engage their targets. I dashed towards the three I had chosen. The gray one was the one in armor. He was built like a tank and had a massive battle axe. Red wore a white cloak with bloodstains and in his hands were a lance. Green wore an expensive suit and had a beautiful gold two-handed sword.

I attacked green first and switched Toripuru to pass through his blade but he leaped out of the way. I the barely managed to dodge a powerful slam from gray. Red followed up and managed to get a small cut on my cheek with his lance.

"Mind telling me how there are seven of you?" I asked them as I continued dodging multiple attacks.

"My Teigu is known as Nationalization otherwise known as the Seven Deadly Sins." Green said. "I am Greed, gray is Sloth, red is Wrath, orange is Gluttony, yellow is Envy, pink is Lust, and white is Pride."

"So that explains the stupid rainbow appearance." I said.

"Shut up yah filthy maggot. I will pick my teeth with your bones when I'm done with you." Wrath said as he continued to try and jab at me with his lance.

I began to think of a plan to fight these guys. Sloth was slow so I would save him for last. Greed could get greedy in a fight and make a easy mistake and Wrath could get to enraged to judge clearly. Deciding on my target I rushed at Greed and turned my back to Sloth. I went on the defensive as Greed try to attack me and I watched as he reached to far with his last attack. Luckily my plan worked as Sloths slow attack came down and crushed Greed's sword.

"Sloth you idiot now I'm scre-" I cut him off literally as Toripuru decapitated him.

"Now you done it kid. Sucks to be you because now I am going to activate our trump card." Wrath said as he and the other remaining sins began to glow. When the glow stopped they all were taller and easily more muscled. Their weapons also had a more dangerous feel. He thrust his lance at me and missed but a lightning bolt shot out of the tip and hit me in the chest.

I groaned as I hit the ground and rolled out of the way as Sloth who was noticeably faster slammed his weapon into the ground missing my head by inches. Knowing I needed to step it up a notch I pulled out Curse in my left hand. I kept both of them at bay by fighting Wrath with Toripuru and Sloth with Curse. It was an even fight before I got an Idea. I launched Curse at slows arm and wrapped the chain around it forcing his weapon to hit the ground near Wrath. This caused him to be knocked off balance which gave me enough time to rush forward and kill him.

I dispersed Curse and put Toripuru in both my hands as I blocked another power slam from Sloth. I switched the gem in Toripuru to where I could hack through his armor and began getting in a slice or two before I blocked again. I attacked him until the point multiple cuts adorned him. He stepped forward to attack but he stumbled allowed me to get the finishing blow on his head. I turned around to assist Akame and Kurome with their sins when I saw a strange sight. Both of them and Gluttony were sitting around a camp fire cooking a boar.

I sighed and walked up behind the sin and cut him down without him noticing since he was drooling at the sight of the meat. I looked down at him and saw him glow and vanish along with the bodies of the other sins. In his place was a multicolored ring. I picked up the ring and put it in my pocket and then looked at the two girls.

"Really? I mean really?" I asked them.

"He offered us food." They said in sync.

I sighed knowing no matter what I said it wouldn't make a difference. "Well you wanted to eat after we finished killing and so we shall eat!" I said. And with that we enjoyed a peaceful meal.

 **Thank you all for the reviews and idea submissions keep them up!**


	16. Girl Problems

Fate. Sometimes fate can be a cruel and uncaring mistress. Sometimes it can do things that makes you want to be its best friend. It came makes things you don't want to happen happen. If your lucky only good things will happen instead of the bad things. Luckily for me today fate was on my side as I was walking through the base after I had just finished my daily morning training.

"Hey Tatsumi." I turned around and was greeted with the face of a green haired assassin.

"Hey Lubbock what's up?" I asked him.

"Well I remember you saying something about needing a fifth Teigu. What was the fifth one suppose to be again?" I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up just because he asked that but ff he actually managed to find and kill the owner of the necklace then I was all set.

"A necklace." I stated.

"Well guess what I found?" He said in a care free tone.

"Your joking." I said not believing my luck.

"Nope." He said as he pulled out a necklace. It had a gold trim and there was an oval shaped pure white stone set inside. "Was a pain to get though. No matter how many cuts I put on him and no matter how many bullets Mine shot he just kept walking. Got the point where Mine had to disintegrate his hole body with a supercharged shot."

"Definitely the correct necklace then." I said. "Anyway thanks I owe you one."

"You can owe me by telling anyone who asks that I am currently in the capital. Because right now it's Najenda's bath time." He said in a perverted tone as he walked away.

"By the way Akame said she needed you for something." He said as he turned the corner.

It took me around five minutes of searching to find Akame. Surprisingly neither she nor Kurome were in the kitchen like I had expected. I had finally found the black haired red eyed girl standing outside our room.

"Hey Lubbock said you needed me?" She turned to face me and I immediately became worried at the look she was giving me. "What wrong?"

"Kurome. Ever since the battle yesterday she has seemed a little off. And now she has locked herself in the room and refuses to come out." I had noticed her acting a little more strange than normal yesterday but I had just put it off due to the fight.

"Let me try talking to her." I went up and knocked on the door. "Kurome, whats wrong?" I got no response. I then returned my attention to Akame. "You have any idea whats wrong with her?"

She pondered for a second before she responded. "No clue. When we woke up this morning you were already awake and training. I tried getting her to get up and go eat breakfast with me but I got no response. I just thought she wanted to sleep in so I went to eat promising to bring her some back." I had to stop her story there.

"Wait a minute. Why did you promise you would bring food back when we both know that you would eat it?" I asked her knowing that the likelihood of food making it back to our room was almost zero. Apparently Akame didn't find this as amusing I did.

"I did manage to bring back a single grape but that's beside the point. We need to find out what is wrong and fast." I began to think of a plan to get inside the room before Curse decided to say an idea of his own.

 _'You know since you just got the necklace we can do a combination Teigu that lets you phase through matter.'_

'I can phase through matter?' I asked not believing his words.

 _'Just combine me with the necklace. It forms Death's Grasp and like Death there are certain things that wont limit you when activated. You can walk through matter and for the trump card you can fly for about five minutes.'_

'Alright Curse remind me later to ask you about every dang combination and their abilities. I need to know this stuff before a major battle.'

 _'As you wish.'_ I then felt Curse using energy to meld himself with the still unnamed necklace. _'Life's Egg.'_

 _'_ What?' I asked in confusion.

 _'You were wondering the name of the necklace. Life's egg is the name.'_ He then resumed the melding process. I then noticed that Akame had been trying to get my attention for a bit.

"Tatsumi! Stop spacing out this is serious we need to get in there." She said worriedly.

"Relax Curse gave me a way into the room and if that fails I'll go get Mine to blow it away." I said confident in Curse's plan.

 _'Alright all done. Just say Death's Grasp and it will be ready.'_

"Death's Grasp!" I saw the necklace glowed white and then the glow faded the necklace looked nearly the same except for veins of black in the white stone.

'Now how do I phase through stuff?'

 _'Just think it and it shall happen'_ Trusting his words I began walking towards the door and willing myself to phase through it. The result was me nearly breaking my nose.

"Ouch that didn't go as planned." I said while massaging my nose.

 _'You need to concentrate more ."_ Curse said while struggling to contain his laughter. I did as I was told and actually managed to phase through the door this time. The inside of the room was difficult to see due to the lack of light inside the room. I barely managed to make out Kurome under the covers. I walked up to her and put my hand on her shoulder.

"Kurome whats wrong?" I asked her. I got no response. "Can you please tell me whats wrong?" Still no response. I had no clue what was going on and went over to the door and unlocked it to let Akame in. "You try talking to her." I watched Akame approach her sister and sat on the bed.

"Kurome whats wrong?" Luckily this time Kurome said something but I was to far away to hear. Akame heard it and turned her attention to me. "She says you need to leave." Wondering why I would need to leave I had no choice but to oblige if I wanted any chance at Kurome returning to normal. I walked out of the room and shut the door.

 **Akame pov**

"Alright he's gone now so tell me whats wrong." I said to my sister. She put her face into her pillow and spoke but all that came out was mumbles. "Face out of the pillow and talk." I said trying to get her to hurry up and tell me whats wrong. She turned her face to where the back of her head was facing me.

"It's Tatsumi." She said in a low whisper. "I can't even look or think of him without my body feeling weird. It feels weirdly warm not like a fire's heat but something else. It started happening yesterday but I put it off as something else. I just don't know whats wrong!" I couldn't help but chuckle at her. Here I thought she was having a major problem but she is just feeling her true feelings for the first time. I sometimes forget with how normally mature she is that she is still my younger sister and not a twin. I guess the sudden appearance of her feelings was due to her fight with Lust yesterday. Somehow some of the sin from Lust must have awoken her true feelings.

"Don't worry everything is fine. It's just your feelings with Tatsumi have finally been set in stone." I said while stroking her hair.

"But I've always liked him." She said defensively.

"Yes but I think that was just above the level of a crush. But now you have a woman's love for her man." At those words she turned to face me.

"So now we can get married?" This just made me chuckle more.

"Of course. After this war if Tatsumi hasn't approached the subject at all we will ask him to marry us." I said fantasizing about it. Kurome herself dawned a look that indicated she was thinking the same. "Next time something like this happens don't ignore me, we are sisters so we can talk about anything." She gave half a nod as she was still fantasizing.

"Anyways you haven't ate at all today and I am getting hungry myself so lets go eat." I said as I got up as I heard her tummy growl at the mention of food. We exited the room and I flashed Tatsumi a smile as we passed him.

"Whats was wrong?" He asked.

"Girl problems Tatsumi, girl problems." With that we went to go satisfy our hunger.


	17. The Horseman

"Remind me why were doing this." I said to no one in particular as I sat on a giant rock.

"Boss wanted us five to intercept their Teigu users while she went to go run an errand for the army." Leone said as she laid down on the ground.

"And this required all five of us to handle them?"

"Don't get overconfident Tatsumi. These four are renown warriors and will put up a strong fight." Bulat said as he was doing some basic practice moves with his spear.

"If they are so strong why isn't everyone else here?" I asked.

"Well someone has to guard the base." Leone said as she yawned.

Currently we were in some dry barren area. Me, Akame, Kurome, Bulat, and Leone had been assigned to stop four enemy Teigu users. Apparently Najenda's spies in the capital learned that Esdeath had assigned these four to go to our army and basically slaughter them. I couldn't imagine these four taking on the army but then I thought of four Night Raid members fighting an army and could see the possibility.

"So what Teigus do they use anyway?" Kurome asked as she munched on cookies with Akame.

Bulat stopped mid swing to think of the answer. "If I remember correctly one uses a caduceus, another uses a scythe, I think the other is a sword, and the final one wields a staff. No one knows of their abilities though since any enemy they have ever fought has been killed by them." Well that's great, we are fighting four enemies we have basically no information on.

'Any ideas on who they are Curse?' I asked the Teigu.

 _'A few. You just better hope I am wrong or this fight will more than likely result in causalities for both sides.'_ This worried me since I like everyone at Night Raid. Heck I even like Mine even though she can be the biggest pain sometimes.

 _'Just to be safe I am going to weld your three Teigus together. The Teigu they form is called One Man Army. The abilities are the same as Toripuru and Life's Egg except the fact of the never ending stamina you will have. The trump card isn't that special but it allows you complete mastery of the weapon since it won't be the regular kind of blade you use. The ace in the hole however will summon an army of your own from the people you have previously killed with One Man Army.'_ There it was again the words ace in the hole. Curse had mentioned that several times but I never asked him.

'Curse what exactly is an ace in the hole?'

 _'Oh yeah I never did explain that. Basically it's a trump cards trump card unique to the legendary five. It can be used only once but it can easily save your life.'_ That reminded me of when Curse used his on Esdeath when I had escaped from her.

'So I can never use your Dead Coffin again?' I asked.

 _'Nope. But hey on the bright side you still got every other ace in the hole left.'_ I began looking at Toripuru wondering what its ace in the hole was. _'Ah that one is probably one of my favorites. Basically causes an earthquake. Anyways One Man Army is ready to be summoned.'_

"One Man Army." I said still transfixed by the power of the legendary five. When the transformation on Toripuru finished I was amazed by the weapon in my hands. It was a dual ended sword one side was blue with a bit of red near the middle and the other side was green with a bit of white in the middle. "Beautiful." I mumbled as I marveled at the blade.

"What's with the colorful blade Tatsumi?" I nearly jumped because I had failed to notice Leone next to me. I looked at the blonde to see she had already transformed into Lionel.

"Just a new Teigu meld I'm trying out." I said while taking a few practice swings. She looked at my blade for a few more seconds before she pointed in a direction.

"Well you better hurry because they are almost there." I looked in the direction she was pointing and I could barely make out four figures on the horizon. I got up from my rock and with Leone walked over to the others.

"Any plans?" I asked hoping someone had an idea.

"We win and then we eat?" Akame asked. I nearly face palmed at how she was talking about food before a big fight.

"I mean an actual plan." I said hoping someone would have one.

"I don't know about you guys but I can feel their killing intent and it is massive!" Leone said in excitement.

"Just great." I said. The figures were closing in on us. They were close enough now that I could see what they were wearing. All four of them had on robes to where you couldn't see nothing but the robe. The only difference in the robes was their colors. One was pitch black, the second was a infectious green, the next was a bloody red and the final was silver. They continued walking to the point they stopped just inside of speaking distance.

"Oh whats this more future victims of war?" The red one asked.

"I sense no diseases in them." The green one said.

"I sense a strong never ending hunger from two of them." The silver one said.

"Let them meet my embrace." The black one said.

They took off their cloaks to reveal four muscular man. Each one had eyes and hair the same color as their robes. Like Bulat had said their weapons were the same he had listed off earlier each tinted to the same color of their respective person.

"We are the Four Horseman, prepare to meet the apocalypse." They said in sync as they charged. We likewise charged and met them halfway. I met the red one and blocked a powerful slash from his sword with one end of my bland and tried to counter with the other. He managed to evade and quickly launched his own counter attack. I barely managed to block each attack he lashed at me.

I managed to catch some glimpses of everyone's battles. Luckily none of them were losing but none were winning either. I saw Bulat blocking the black ones Scythe. I saw the silver one blocking both Akame's and Kurome's blades with his staff. Leone was being kept at bay by the the green ones Caduceus. I then returned my attention back to my opponent to block another slash.

'These the ones you were thinking of Curse?' I asked hoping he could provide some information on my target.

 _'Sadly yes. These are the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. They are each highly skilled. The one you are fighting right now is War. His blade every time it lands a blow and draws blood regenerates his energy to full. His trump card is a blood lust frenzy that will make him nearly impossible to beat. Due to how his is easily evading your strikes right now I would say he already activated it.'_

'Just peachy.' I began to think of a plan to beat War. I finally had one but it would be highly risky and I would definitely be getting some backlash later from the plan. 'Just how much regeneration am I receiving from my necklace right now?' I asked since the plan would solely rely on this.

 _'Just don't take a hit to the heart or head and you should be fine.'_ He said with a slight bit of wariness due to what I had said.

'Perfect.' I began to enact my plan as I swung the green part of my blade towards war. As expected he attempted to block and when my blade Phased through he quickly dodged and followed with a counterattack. I put up the act of blocking and let him break through my guard as his sword pierced my gut. I felt pain. Pain so unbearable I wanted to scream but I managed not to. I felt the cold blade being removed from my body and welt my war blood pouring out of me. I felt a weight on my back as War stepped on me.

"And the first victim falls to War! Death my brother I hope you appreciate my offering." Only one of my eyes could see what was going on due to the other being forced to look at the ground. I managed to see that Death was only paying half attention to Bulat now as he looked at War.

"Brother you are mistaken he has not yet met the embrace of me." At this War stepped off my back and flipped me over to where I was facing up. Once again he stabbed me this time piercing my lung. I had trouble breathing and I felt more blood leaving my body. Knowing he would do it again soon enough I came up with an idea to trick him. I used a technique I had learned from Curse to stop my heartbeat. This time it seemed the others had noticed my wound as I heard two voices screaming my name.

"Tatsumi!" Akame and Kurome screamed. I couldn't open my eyes and give them a sign I was alright or my ruse would be over.

"His heart has stopped but I have not felt him die brother!" I heard Death shout. I felt my wounds close and my breathing return to normal. I heard a shocked gasp from War as he began pick me up to examine me. I knew this was the perfect opportunity to strike so I snapped my eyes open and lunged forward with my blade. One Man Army sunk into his chest. War's grip loosened on his blade as it dropped to ground soon followed by his lifeless body. The other Horseman angered by the death of their brother began to attack more viciously as they sought out revenge.

Still feeling the woozy from the blood I had lost I rested for a second before I went to go assist. I walked over to Akame and Kurome who clearly were pissed off. I had seen them mad before but that was nothing compared to their current rage.

"None of you will survive." Kurome said as she landed a blow.

"We will avenge our beloved." Akame said as she landed a kick on him.

"Why? Why won't you succumb to my famine?" Famine said as he desperately tried to defend against the enraged girls.

None of them having noticed my appearance yet I approached Famine and put One Man Army through his back. I put my mouth next to his ear and whispered the last words he would ever hear.

"Don't you know? The scariest thing known to man is a pissed off woman." I then removed the blade and watched him drop to the ground. Immediately after Famine had died I felt two forces slam to me and tightly gripped me. I looked down and saw Akame and Kurome were both hugging me like I would disappear.

"Don't worry I'm alive." I said to reassure them. "But if you keep hugging me this hard my spine will snap." They both lessened their grip on me before they looked up at me. The next thing I know I felt two sharp stings on my cheeks as they slapped me. "That's for worrying us." Akame said. Then they both kissed me. "And that's for being alive." Happy with themselves they both let go and looked behind me. I turned around and saw both Leone and Bulat were having trouble.

"You two go help Leone, I will help Bulat." I said to them. They both looked at me reluctantly afraid I disappear but they both nodded and went over to Leone. I managed to get over to Bulat but not before Death had used what I assumed to be his trump card. A shadow scythe went through Incursio's armor and came out the other side. It didn't seem to do any damage until the armor went away and revealed a pale Bulat.

"Never had I thought the day would come that my brothers would enter my realm. I will make sure you join them. The scythe I just hit you with is sapping away your life and has no known cure. I speculate you have five minutes to live." I cursed at myself as I heard those words. I knew I had one chance at saving Bulat and I had to act fast. I defused One Man Army to where I had Curse in my left hand and Toripuru in my right.

I lashed at Death but he managed to block it with his scythe. I launched Curse and wrapped around both of Death's hands binding them to his Scythe. With his offense lowered I went in for the kill. When Toripuru went into Death I made sure to channel his life essence into the blade. After I had channeled all I could I turned back around to see Bulat was breathing barely. I rushed over to his side and channeled the life energy into Bulat. Slowly but surely his face returned to its natural color and his breathing became normal as well. I looked over to where the others were and saw they had won their fight as well. We had slain the horseman.


	18. New Arrival

I hate those days that start off like they are going to be the one day that nothing bad happens and then they end up with so many things going wrong. Well that was what was currently happening at the Night Raid base. The day had started off normal. Wake up, eat, train, and all the usual stuff. Around an hour ago Lubbock had detected that there was intruders nearby. Now normally we would have went out and killed the intruders but Lubbock said he had lost count after around a thousand. We had no choice but to wait and engage them outside of the base. Now normally this wouldn't be a problem with everyone fighting. But earlier today Najenda along with Mine and Bulat had went to go to the Revolutionary Army headquarters to pick up something. So yeah here we were all of the remaining Night Raid members back to back surrounded by a sea of enemies.

"When did Najenda say she was getting back again?" I asked as I sliced down another three enemies with Toripuru in ruby mode.

"Don't know but she sure is taking her sweet time!" Lubbock yelled as he cut the windpipe of an opponent.

So far the fight had gone pretty evenly. While they had the advantage in numbers we had the advantage in raw power. Still it was getting annoying when no matter how many you kill another takes their place. Even though we were seasoned fighters we had stamina which was starting to run a little row after this fight. I was almost ready to take out One Man Army just to get its never ending stamina. As I was about to summon the weapon I saw multiple canisters being thrown at us. Before any of us could react they starting shooting out a mustard yellow gas. The effects were immediate as I saw my companions slumping down to the ground in what appeared to be complete paralysis. I speculated the only reason I was still able to move around was either Curse being part biological or Life's Egg. I knew with my friends incapacitated that this fight would no longer be even so I went over to get Kurome's blade before I detected a killing intent far more severe than any of the other enemies we had been fighting.

The sea of enemies parted as a lone figure walked his way towards me. The figure was wearing a purple suit that would probably be the same price as a house. He had brown eyes that matched the color of his skin and was completely bald. Coming from the top of his head was a large jagged scar that went just above his right eye. He approached me casually like he was on a morning stroll and stopped a few feet away. The look he was giving me was one of amusement like a child who told his parents they were helping.

"Well well, seems Stylish's concoctions are not as powerful as he claims if one is still standing. Or is it that you are special hmm?" He said as if he was enjoying this moment. "Guess I will just gut you myself." With that he pulled out a massive two-handed sword. It appeared to be a normal sword and the only thing different about it was the red trim that coated the edges. Without wasting any time he launched himself at me. I blocked with my blade and immediately I felt wounds opening on my body. Wondering what happened I jumped back as Life's Egg healed me.

"Like it?" He asked tauntingly. "This is my Teigu Banpaia. It has the ability to wound anyone who blocks the blade. Not even your Toripuru in emerald form can escape it. But it seems like you will be interesting as you have regeneration but that doesn't matter as the results will remain the same." He then resumed his assault. Knowing that blocking his attacks would not work in my favor in any way I was forced to evade as I came up with a plan. I couldn't retreat nor could I abandon my friends so my only choice was to do my plan before this guy showed up. I managed to backtrack enough to quickly snatch Kurome's Teigu.

'Curse hurry and fuse Genso and Toripuru!' I asked hoping my plan would work.

 _'Already done'_ The Teigu replied.

"Fantomu!" Toripuru transformed into a blade purely of shadows. The shadows emitted a purplish glow that looked like wisps of the shadows themselves. My opponent only raised his eyebrow at my blade and without hesitation attacked once again. I went in with a slash hoping he would try and block the attack. He did attempt the block but the fake attack from Fantomu vanished as the real one hit him right on the shoulder. I had expected him to grunt in pain at the least. What I didn't expect was for nothing to happen to him and an excruciating pain to emit from my shoulder. The pain was so unbearable that I fell to the ground and let go of Fantomu.

"You like that? That was my trump card right there. If I can draw blood from a block attack it basically gives me a free one hit shield that causes damage to the owner." He said as he lazily approached me. He stopped just above my prone form and held his sword to my left arm. "Now Esdeath said to bring you back alive but she didn't say I couldn't maim." He said as he began to draw his blade back to strike me. Just before the blade touched me I heard a familiar sound of a certain sniper bullet and the sound of metal being struck. I looked up and I saw that Banpaia had a indent from what looked like a bullet. I looked for the source and couldn't find any until I looked dead above me.

Flying around in the sky was a massive danger beast. But not just any danger beast it was Najenda's that she used for transport. I then saw something falling from the beast. I then realized that something was a someone. The figured landed in a power slam into a mob of enemies who had been watching my duel with the guy. When the dust cleared a figure with blue hair wearing a white robe rose from the dust. There was one unique thing about him and that was the two horns coming out of his head. In his hands was a staff with blades protruding out of the ends of it.

"Seems like time has run out. Better go pick up Stylish." My opponent said as he quickly disappeared from my view. Before I could even see what the new arrival was doing a familiar suit of armor appeared in front of me.

"Tatsumi why do I always arrive when you have had you ass handed to you?" Bulat said jokingly as he inspected me.

"You try fighting a thousand enemies and then a Teigu user who can damage with a simple block." I said.

"Hurry and follow me to our ride. I'm getting the others on board." I was wondering how he would get them all the way into the air when I noticed the danger beast had landed. I got quickly worried about the remaining enemies but noticed that most of them had fallen to the mysterious warrior. I snatched up Fantomu off the ground and began walking to the danger beast knowing that we were only alive because we had been saved.


	19. Calm Before the Storm

It had been a month since we had abandoned the old Night Raid base. It had also been a month since two new members had joined Night Raid. Susanoo who was the figure who decimated the remaining of a thousand enemies turned out to be a biological Teigu. Not that it really mattered. I mean sure he had a bit of trouble understanding some simple human concepts but he was getting better. He official title was The Speed of Lightning Susanoo and I had to agree with that title because as soon as we got up in the isolated mountains within minutes he had set up a fully operational base and was doing all of the house work. Like everyone he did have some quirks about him such as being a major perfectionist. He would often fix the most minor detail such as a single strand of hair being out of place.

The other new Night Raid member was a different story. Her name was Chelsea and I was introduced to her on the danger beast the night we fled the old base. She had very pale skin and her hair was a light red color that went well with her red eyes. The best way to describe her personality would be to say she was mischievous which was perfect for the Teigu she had. Her Teigu was known as Gaia Foundation which allowed her to turn into whatever they wanted which Chelsea took advantage of and often played pranks. She did have a bit of a cold and blunt side to her as well but overall she was a good person. Akame and Kurome had become best friends with her almost immediately when she have offered the duo some lollipops which she seemed to have a endless supply of.

Currently all of us were in our new meeting room which happened to be the dining room. Najenda had called us all here because she got word that the Revolutionary Army was waiting for an organization called the Path of Peace to get ready and they could launch a three pronged attack on the Empire.

"So apparently Honest has a spy in the Path of Peace. So if we assassinate this Borick we will be all clear to launch an attack on the Empire."

"I got a feeling there's a but coming up." Chelsea said as she unwrapped a new lollipop and placed it in her mouth.

"Sadly there is." Najenda agreed. "Esdeath has ordered the remaining Teigu users under her control to protect him at all cost. Luckily they are not there yet or this would be a suicide mission that is why I have devised a plan. We are going to reduce their numbers by killing as many as possible. Myself, Chelsea, Lubbock and Bulat are going to provide a decoy. Since Esdeath hates me she will more than likely come after me and we can increase this chance if Chelsea disguises herself as Tatsumi. Meanwhile she will force her Teigu users on everyone else." It wasn't a bad plan but it still had some holes in it.

"How are we going to let them know where we are?" I asked. Apparently she hadn't thought that far ahead but luckily an idea popped in her head.

"Plain and simple we announce it loud and proud. We will kill some of the Empire guards in the nearby area and word will spread whats going on. Then us as the decoys will get reported going somewhere else from everyone else." Alright I give this plan a fifty-fifty chance of working even though this plan had a pretty shoddy way to make it work.

"Well seeing as no one else has any plans I guess it will work." With that I left the meeting room.

* * *

"I still can't believe you think Susanoo dressing up as a scarecrow will work." I said to Leone.

"Even if it doesn't work it will give me time to shoot without them having a chance to react." Mine said as she double checked Pumpkin.

"Any chance you can blind them from up here Schere?" I asked the air head.

"I don't think so." She said sadly as she was still reading her book.

"So how many do you think we're going to have to fight?" Akame asked while stealing the last dozen cookies from Kurome without her noticing.

"About the same amount of those stolen cookies." I said. Kurome now noticing what her sister had done, attempted to snatch back some of the cookies but failed miserably.

"They're here!" Mine said. True to her word a group of people were approaching. It was a oddball group if I had to use any words to describe it. Each of them stood out tremendously that you could tell they weren't any regular person you would see walking down the street. I saw a guy that looked like he burned people for a living. I also saw another that looked like more of a sailor than a warrior. The person who stood out the most to me though was the person I had fought the night we lost the base.

I looked to my right and saw Mine already aiming her gun. By the look of it she was aiming at the guy who looked like he was part of the incinerator squad.

"As soon as Susanoo makes his move I will drop him dead." She said confidently.

"Don't miss." I said. She only scoffed at my words.

"I am a genius sniper, I won't miss." She said determined. I gave her a nod and looked at Schere who would be staying with Mine as a bodyguard.

"Stay safe." I said to her.

"You as well." She replied putting away her book and readying her massive scissors.

The rest of us got into position and began to ready ourselves to jump down and provide aid to Susanoo as soon as he made his move. The group approached the scarecrow and sent the sailor boy to inspect it. This was the calm before the storm, as soon as Susanoo makes his move we fight. The sailor approached the scarecrow and suddenly it broke apart and Susanoo quickly sent him flying. The battle had begun.


	20. The Storm

I was never scared of heights before today. But I learned what it felt like to fly two separate times and I never want to do it again. After Susanoo had sent the sailor flying I heard the sound of Pumpkin being fired. It all happened in a split second but as I was running towards my target I saw the brief flash of Pumpkins bullet collide with a purple hexagonal barrier. The barrier deflected the shot towards me and to make matters worse the bullet was larger and glowing a bright purple. It hit the ground in front of me and sent me flying. Luckily I crashed through the branches of multiple trees which managed to soften my initial impact but it still hurt like crazy. And to make matters worse after I had healed up thanks to Life's Egg, two of the enemy Teigu users were here.

I recognized one of them as the wielder of Banpaia still dressed in the same outfit he fought in last time. The other person was a very old man in a simple white robe. He was completely bald and I looked into his eyes and noticed that he seemed to be blind. He did however have a long white bear that reached down to his gut. I looked for any indication of a Teigu on him but did not see any. My old enemy decided to break the silence first.

"Odd I thought you went with your leader." He said in a amused tone as he brought out Banpaia. At least Chelsea managed to pull off the disguise so hopefully Najenda and the others were okay.

"Unfortunately for you I wanted to settle the score." I said while drawing out Toripuru. "I don't believe I've met you before though old man." The old man didn't seem to notice my words so his companion decided to speak.

"Ah how rude of me, please allow me to introduce ourselves. I am known as Ketseuki and this man is Kashikoi. He would introduce himself but he is blind and mute." I had to admit the old man had some interesting disabilities to have as a Teigu user I wondered what he could be capable of. "Well enough chit chat time to torture and kill you." Ketseuki said as he rushed me with Banpaia. Knowing what it was capable of I knew not to try and block the blade and dodge out of the way. Then something happened I thought would never be possible, I got slapped by a beard. The force made me slam into a tree putting a deep dent into the bark. I looked up and noticed Kashikoi was approaching me with his beard wildly swaying around.

"Really a beard Teigu!?" I exclaimed not sure if I wanted to know just why the heck it existed. At that remark Ketseuki laughed at me.

"As entertaining as it would be that is not the case. Kashikoi has the ability to control any part of his body." Ketseuki said as he launched another attack at me.

"Don't suppose you can tell me what his Teigu is?" I asked as I evaded another attack. I soon got my answer as two beams of energy shot out of Kashikoi's eyes and made the ground explode. Great just great he has a whipping beard and can shoot lasers.

'Curse please tell me you have an idea to help me out.' I asked hoping he would have some idea that would give me an edge.

 _'Umm. How about skill? Because I'm drawing a blank here.'_ Great even Curse has no clue to what I should do. I then began to think of some plan that would help. Banpaia was immune to Toripuru's emerald form and old man here I just got the feeling I didn't want to get close to him. That was when I came up with a ridiculously stupid idea that would either let me kill him or I would die.

'Curse with Death's Grasp I could phase through matter right?' I asked to assure myself of my plan.

 _'Yeah wha... Wait a minute you're going to try that!?'_ Curse asked after figuring out my plan.

'All or nothing?' I said sheepishly.

 _'Just don't die.'_

I then began to enact my plan and rushed towards Ketseuki. I acted like I was swinging my blade and he prepared to block it and at the last second I lowered Toripuru and used my own body to take the blow from Banpaia. I managed to phase through it and brought Toripuru back up stabbed him. I began to prepare the finishing blow before I felt myself yanked off of him. I didn't even have time to see what happened and I heard the sound of lasers being fired. For the second time that day I flew through the skies. Luckily this time I when I landed, instead of trees someone managed to catch me.

"Dang Tatsumi I didn't think you were this bold." Said Leone. I then felt her throw me and I felt what felt like flames go past me. "Sorry Tatsumi but if you want a date we will have to go after this." With that Leone went after the crematory wannabe. I took a look around to see who was fighting who and noticed that mostly everyone was fighting for their lives. Akame and Kurome were fighting a pair of females that looked alike except one had yellow hair color while the other had silver. Mine and Schere were fighting against one opponent that was surrounded by multiple purple hexagonal shields. Susanoo was impressively taking on three opponents himself one of them being the sailor boy who was in an armor similar to Incursio's but due to fighting Susanoo had already received massive damage. I was surprised by one of the other two as she was the crazy girl with the mutt. The third I did not recognize but he looked like a glorified army general with huge muscles and crazy height. He did have some strange gloves on so I guessed that was his Teigu.

"Hey Susanoo I thought you hated un even things it's practically a four versus one here!' I shouted to the biological Teigu as I joined him in his fight.

"Well Tatsumi it was even until you got here." He said stoically as he landed a viscous smack on the mutt. I couldn't help but laugh as I parried a blow from sailor boy and switched Toripuru to sapphire form to destroy his remaining armor. I manage to land a blow on him before he unexpectedly began to try and fly into the air. Unluckily for him I managed to summon Curse and wrapped the chain around his ankle. With a burst of strength I managed to drag him down probably due to him no expecting to be caught like a bird in a cage.

"Susanoo!" I shouted hoping he would understand what to do. I looked over as once again he hit the dog into the other Teigu user knocking both of them down as crazy girl shouted more commands at her dog. I took note of the discarded gun on the ground and found it funny how useless she was without her weapon. After making sure he had time Susanoo quickly turned around and while I kept the Incursio look alike grappled Susanoo sunk his staff deep into the chest where the heart would be ending the life of the poor sailor.

"Tatsumi go help Leone I will handle these two." I knew being outnumbered in a Teigu fight would be dangerous but considering it was him I figured he would be fine. I took off towards Leone who was busy trying to not be turned into bacon. She noticed me and a grin formed on her face.

"Tatsumi! Here to invite me on that date?" I couldn't help but chuckle at her antics. Here she is being almost barbecued and she can still make a joke. I decided to humor her and play along.

"Yeah we can ask flame boy here to cook some stuff for us with his portable oven." At this she laughed. Noticing my presence our opponent began to panic a tiny bit as he Teigu wasn't as effective against multiple opponents alone. Unfortunately one his his teammates noticed. Apparently the shield user that was fighting Mine and Schere managed to put a massive purple shield around the three of us.

"Leone?" I called out unsure of what to do.

"Yeah?" She asked as she was looking at the shield.

"I think we might be in trouble." I said I tossed a quick glance at the battlefield. I was shocked with the results however. The fighting had stopped but only two bodies littered the ground. One was sailor boy and the other was muscle head. The only other things that were laying on the ground was two human arms without their owner. Everyone else had surrounded the bubble and was trying to break it but they were not succeeding. Just then our opponent did something strange he dropped his Teigu and pulled out two items. One was a picture the other was a remote. My mind went into overdrive to figure out what was happening. We were trapping a sphere shield that seemed unbreakable. This guy had a fire Teigu that had a massive engine and he was holding a remote. Then it clicked he was going to sacrifice himself to kill us.

I went into overdrive thinking of anyway to save us and I got an idea. I used Curse to wrap around both the mans arms. Even with his arms bound he was struggling greatly and I figured it was only a matter of time before he broke free of his bonds and escaped. I switched Toripuru to emerald form and slashed at the shield and noticed a small crack form an vanish just as quickly.

"Leone I am going to cut you a way out of here but it will be a tight fit!" She was about to argue with me before I cut her off. "Don't worry about me I got an escape route." She nodded and walked over to me. I landed multiple slashes on the shield and kept the attack up for twenty seconds hoping it would work. A hole big enough for a person formed and Leone manage to get out just barely as the shield closed again. That was when everything went wrong as I felt him break free of his bonds. I summoned Death's Grasp and tried phasing through the shield. That was when I heard a small beep followed by an explosion. I got out of the shield just in time as I felt my backside burn not from the flames but from the heat produced by them. I turned around as I got outside and observed the sphere as the only thing able to be seen was flames. We had won the fight without a single casualty.


	21. Kyoroch

The city of Kyoroch. We had arrived here yesterday after everyone met up after all of the fights. Luckily no one was killed but Najenda did lose an arm. Well her robotic one so it wasn't that bad. Apparently she was cornered at a cliff by Esdeath and some Teigu user with wings. Luckily Lubbock had been with her and had an idea that saved their lives. He used his Teigu to tie Najenda's robotic arm to a boulder after she had managed to grab Esdeath with her grapple attack. Normally Esdeath could have got away but Lubbock had also placed wires in the palm of the arm so that they would ensnare what they grabbed. So after they pushed the boulder off the cliff it took Esdeath with it and the winged person dove off after her to save her. So yeah besides that everything was just fine and peachy.

"It is strange to be walking around a town without seeing one of our faces on a wanted poster." I stated as I walked through the streets. The following morning the group split up into groups of two so that they could investigate the entire city without being spotted by the enemies.

"I know and I wanted to see my lovely face." Chelsea said as she walked beside me. I found it funny that she said that as there was just no chance that there was a wanted poster of her yet. I then noticed a unusual vendor that sold a product that I have had very few times but each one I still remembered fondly. "Tatsumi what are you doing?" She asked as she watched me walk up to the vendor.

"Getting us a treat." I said calmly as I paid the owner before making my way back to her. "Here." I said as I offered the delicious treat to her. "I'm hungry and I saw this and I wanted some. Besides this will make us look more natural."

"What kind of lady would I be if I refused a mans generous gift?" She said as she took the cone from me. She licked the ice cream once and immediately a look of pleasure crossed her face. "This is amazing!"

"Right?" I agreed. "It's not a flavor you could find back in the Capital, right?"

"Well we should map out the town more." She said as she finished devouring the sweet treat.

"Eh I got a good feeling of the town. Well at least one good enough to know where to go." I said as I finished my treat as well. "So let's head back and get some food I'm hungry." I said as I eyed the lollipop she was unwrapping.

"Not happening." Great I didn't even have to ask to be shutdown.

* * *

 **Later that night.**

"According to our data, there should be an underground passageway passing beneath this graveyard which leads from the church to Borick's mansion." One of the members of the Revolutionary Army's spy team informed me. Akame and Kurome were in a nearby tree perched on separate branches, surveying the area but I could hear the faint sound of cookies being crunched "We think it may be good to station a few men here while carrying out the assassination."

"If we could find out the location of the passageway's entrance we could go to the basement of Borick's mansion that way." I stated.

Before any more words could be spoken a sudden rain of feathers flew through the sky, a clear indication that the enemy was here and attacking. I managed to dodge the attack but the spies were not as lucky as they were cut down by the barrage of feathers.

"Not bad. That was a well executed evasion." A voice from above spoke and we looked up to see a winged being descending from the sky. "Reconnaissance from the skies certainly shows you how capable your enemy is." As a response, I drew Toripuru from its sheath.

"So lemme guess you're one of Esdeath's lackeys or something?" I asked.

"I am Run. It is a pleasure to meet you." He said as he introduced himself with a mock bow.

So that Teigu gives him wings I thought patiently. Hopefully he doesn't know about Akame and Kurome. Maybe they could get the jump on him? Probably not he was way to high in the air and the only chance of attacking him right now would be with Curse.

"Well I was told not to engage so I must say farewell." With those words he vanished leaving me here to wonder just what the purpose of his appearance was. I didn't have to wait long as a black haired woman with clothes that nearly showed her upper cleavage appeared. I didn't even have time to wonder how she even got here before she somehow made her fingernails grow to a length long enough to rival that of a blades. She launch an attack at my face but I managed to block them.

"Not bad kid." She said as she licked her fingers. "But don't play just defense I need you to attack me seriously..." She suddenly blushed at a sudden thought. "In order to experience the ultimate pleasure." Alright I have fought many things before but never have I fought a masochist. I frowned slightly before suddenly dodging to the left as something grazed my cheek. I looked to see that it was one of her long-ass fingernail and there was a splash of blood on it from where it slashed my cheek. Dang I was too careless I need to be more careful.

"Come on is that all you got?." She taunted me as she retracted her nail and licked my blood off of it. "The taste of blood has always excited me. Give me more!" I then noticed a sound or should I say the lack of a sound. There was no signal that cookies were being eaten so that must mean that the girls were ready to fight. But why haven't they revealed themselves yet? Unless they want me to lead this crazy person into a trap. I chanced a glance at the tree where the two were perched and saw the tip of a blade peeking through the leaves. Perfect they were waiting for me.

"This isn't the time to be looking away, little girl." My opponent said as she attacked me with her nails again.

"You can't catch me with that lame attack!" I taunted, weaving in and out as the nails ripped through empty air. "I mean really who fights with their nails!? That is just so stupid. I mean think about it nails are weak and are broken easy!" I said as I began running towards the tree. Of course I knew her nails were not normal and were sharper and more durable than normal but this was just a act to make her mad.

"You little brat. Don't think you can get away from me!" She scream as she followed me bent of killing me. Good she's following me. I thought even though I could feel her aura breathing down my back. Of course I definitely pushed her buttons a little too far. I rushed under the tree and stopped with my back to the bark. My follower stopped just a few feet away from me "Ready to die you brat!?" She asked as she readied her nails to strike. But before she could even move a inch two shadows fell from the tree and cut her down.

"Took you long enough." Kurome said as she flicked the blood off her sword.

"Says the person who was watching the whole time." I said as I looked at the corpse.

"We had to finish eating." Akame said as she pouted a little. "We are growing girls and we need our food." I couldn't help but think that they ate enough to feed a army. If that didn't give them enough energy I feared the amount of food that would.

"Did you see where she came from?" I asked wondering how she even managed to sneak up on me. They both pointed to a gravestone that had a hole in front of it. Was she seriously foolish enough to just expose a secret entrance to us? Before I could even think of what other motives she could have had I heard two sounds that made me question life. I looked at the sources of the sounds to see both of the girls blushing heavily.

"How are you still hungry!?"


	22. Dates

"Hey we're ba-" I stopped mid sentence as I looked at the sight in front of me. Akame, Kurome, and myself had finally arrived at our temporary hideout only to be welcomed with the sight of Lubbock on the couch looking like he had been nearly trampled to death. "Lubbock what the heck happened to you?" I asked as I rushed forward to inspect his wounds. "Don't tell me you got these wounds because of a girl." I said knowing him and his antics. He turned his head slightly to me and I could only see half his face as the other half was covered in a bandage.

"Three of the Rakshasa demons is what happened. They had this girl on the ground and were just about to kill her. They had already wounded me so they thought I was dead. Would have been if I didn't wrap myself up in my wires. I couldn't just let her die so I got back up and fought. I managed to win just barely thanks to Bulat showing up at the end and killing the last one but as you can see I didn't get out unscathed." Before he could say more he passed out probably from exhaustion. I had to admit Lubbock did something very respectable in my eyes. Even though he is a pervert he is still a good guy.

"Looks like the perv can do something for a girl without a underlying reason." Kurome said as she sat on the arm of the couch. Akame then left the room and returned within seconds with some food and gave Kurome some as she sat at her feet.

"So where is everyone else?" I asked him but a voice behind me answered.

"Either resting or doing something else." I turned around and was greeted with the sight of Najenda with a rather pointy arm or should I say sword. "Um what is that?" I said pointing to the sword. It was a massive sword about four feet long but it looked strangely light but it was oddly shaped.

"Oh this?" She said as she patted the sword. "Well since I lost my arm I figured I might as well get an upgrade. Look it even does this." She did a simple flick and the sword folded on itself and one of the bending joints folded into an arm. "Pretty cool huh?"

"Miss Najenda couldn't you have chosen something more symmetrical?" Susanoo said as he entered the room clearly annoyed at how disproportionate the sword was.

"Find me a symmetrical sword that can fold like this and it's a deal but other than that I am keeping this." She said as she walked over to a empty chair and sat down.

"As you wish." Susanoo said as he left the house. The sound of metal being broken and some people screaming entered our ears before he returned into the house with odd lumps of metal that were either from buildings, weapons, or any odd object. He didn't say a word as he walked towards his room.

"Maybe you shouldn't have said that." Akame stated as she eyed the room from where loud sizzling noises were coming from.

"Perhaps." Najenda said as she pursed her lips. "Oh well too late now. So anyways what happened to you guys? I doubt Tatsumi over there slipped and cut his cheek on a rock." She said as she pointed out the small cut on my cheek. So we told her what had happened from the spies being killed to the woman appearing and attacking.

"It is a shame to lose spies but there are some bright sides to this story. The woman you fought was the final Rakshasa demon so we won't have to deal with any of them anymore. Even better is that we found the secret passage." At the mention of the passage I decided to voice my concerns.

"That's the one thing I don't understand. Why would she expose that passage? It seems like they are inviting us to use that way so I guess it's a trap or a bluff of some sort." She nodded at my words but before she could speak Susanoo entered the room with a perfectly symmetrical sword about nine feet long.

"I have brought you a symmetrical sword so please get rid of that one." He said pointing at the one Najenda currently had.

"Susanoo." Akame stated slowly. "I think that sword might be the wrong size." Susanoo only looked puzzled at her words.

"But when we acquired this one" He said pointing to the one currently attached to her. "Miss Najenda said something about having a big sword."

"I did say that but I did not mean a sword that couldn't even be swung in the streets. I appreciate the effort but that is just not the right size." Najenda said as she looked like she actually wanted that sword a tiny bit.

"How did you even make that?" Kurome asked curiously. He responded by walking over to his room and opening the door. We were met with the sight of a forge. "You know what? On second thought I don't want to know." She said as she couldn't believe what he had done.

"I apologize for my mistake, I shall return with a better sized sword." With that he returned to his forge/room.

"Someday we are gonna have to teach him common sense." I said.

"Yeah but that can wait until later. Due to Lubbock being out of action for a while we are going to reduce the enemy numbers tomorrow." Oh great another freaking Teigu battle. "So anyways I need you to take Akame and Kurome on two separate dates tomorrow." She said the last part in a teasing tone with a grin.

"Say what now?" I asked to make sure I heard her correctly.

"Oh you don't want to?" She asked with fake curiosity. "I heard while you and Chelsea were scouting earlier that you bought her a ice cream cone. Some people could call that a date." She said this last part with an evil grin on her face.

"Tatsumi..." I heard two sweetly evil voices say on the same time. I slowly turned my neck to be face with the two sisters looking at me evilly.

"Whats this about a date with Chelsea?" Kurome asked as she pulled out Genso.

"And you bought her food?" Akame said as she pulled out Murasame.

"Curse I know you can hear us so fuse our blades together or we will torture you as well." Kurome said in a sickly sweet tone.

"Don't even think you can get away because we will torture you through Tatsumi." Akame said in agreement.

'Curse don't betray me man.' I said pleading to the organic Teigu.

 _'Dude. There is nothing more scary than a mad jealous girl you are on your own.'_ He said as he began the fusion.

'Traitor!'

"Oh Tatsumi!" Akame said as she held the bottom half of the newly forged Teigu named Osore.

"You better have a good excuse because if you don't you will need a good doctor." Kurome said as she gripped the upper half of the black and green blade.

"Well you see I thought it would be better to act more natural and there happened to be a ice cream stand. Plus the flavor isn't one you can find in the capital so I wanted to try it. It would have been rude to not buy her one as well so I had to." I said hoping that they had some forgiveness in their hearts. I wasn't expecting expecting laughter to erupt from behind me.

"Tatsumi stop being so nervous their joking." Chelsea said in between laughs.

"Chelsea!? When did you get here?" I asked the girl.

"Wow I'm hurt." She said as she faked a sob. "I have been here for the last five minutes and you didn't notice me." Knowing she was just kidding I returned my attention to the sisters.

"So you aren't mad?" I asked them nervously.

"Of course not we know you wouldn't betray us." Kurome said as she sheathed the Genso which was no longer fused.

"But still you better take us to that ice cream stand on our dates tomorrow." Akame said as she drooled at the thought of ice cream. That reminded me what had started this whole mess in the first place.

"Not that I don't approve of the idea but why do we have to go on dates tomorrow?" I asked Najenda.

"Well you see we need to draw out the enemy so we can reduce their numbers. That way we have a better chance of making this assassination succeed. So I thought of ways to make it appetizing to the enemy on how to strike us and what better way than a date. They will see two members of Night Raid alone and they will think they are off guard since you will be doing couple things. The third one of you will be watching nearby and when the enemy strikes you just swoop in and kill whoever they sent after you." Najenda said this all easily but I couldn't help but think she was hiding something. Before I could ask Susanoo's door opened.

With him came the head of a sword but this one was much bigger and was about twenty feet long. It was long enough that I concluded he must have folded and unfolded it to get half of it even in the living room.

"Um Susanoo what is that?" Chelsea asked motioning to the blade.

"Miss Najenda complained about no being able to swing the previous sword in the streets. So I made one that could make the room for her."

"Susanoo." He looked at me and gave me a look asking what I had to say. "Just no man. Disassemble that sword and go to bed or whatever just no more swords." He gave Najenda a look but she only nodded at my words. After much struggle he managed to fold the sword back into his room and he closed the door.

"So that happened." I said to no one in particular.

* * *

 **The next day**

"So where to first?" I asked Akame as we walked through the maze like streets of the city.

"It's near lunch time and I am getting hungry." She said as her tummy growled in agreement.

"Didn't you say you wanted some of that ice cream?" I asked her as I tried to remember where the stand was. Her eyes lit up at the mention of the cold treat.

"Just so you know we are buying everything they have." She said calmly.

"Well there goes my monthly payment." I muttered under my breath. I led her through the streets and got lost twice before we finally arrived at the stand.

"All of it please." Akame said. The owner of the stall stopped moving and looked her dead in the eyes to make sure she got it right.

"I must have misheard you. Could you please repeat that?" She asked.

"I want all of the ice cream." The owner faltered before her gaze switched to me.

"Yeah she's serious. Here this amount should cover it." I said as I dropped a fairly big bag of coins on the counter. The owner shrugged and took the money. Not their problem if we don't eat it all as long as they get paid. It took a while but eventually all of the ice cream was collected into a big container which the owner presented to us along with two spoons as she put a 'Sold Out' sign on the front of the stand. Akame picked the container up with one hand shocking most of the nearby people who had stopped their daily actions to watch the odd scene fold out. With her free hand she began devouring the cold treat. We walked through the streets and finally managed to find a nearby place with a shady tree which we sat down under. Akame continue to happily eat until she suddenly stopped halfway and dropped the spoon.

"Akame?" I asked wondering what had caused her to stop. She then clutched her head as if she was in pain. Thats when it hit me what was wrong. "Oh so you got a brain freeze? This is why eating fast can be bad."

"But it's so tasty!" She said still clutching her head.

"Still there is no need to eat so fast. It's not like anyone is going to run up and steal the ice cream." I didn't even blink before a flash of short black hair and eyes appeared in front of me, picked up the container, and run off at supersonic speed. "Well it seems I forgot to put Kurome into the equation." I said as I watched the short hair girl take up a perch from where she was observing us. "Honestly how are we going to get the enemy to attack us Kurome does something like that. It's painfully obvious were not alone and plotting something.

"Well you have got to remember she wanted some ice cream too and we bought all of it so there would have been no way she could have gotten some later on your date with her." Akame said as she finally recovered from her brain freeze. I then noticed that there was a bite of ice cream left on her lips.

"Akame you got some left on your lips." I was confused as to how she didn't notice food on her face. I was even more confused as to why it was still there and not consumed yet.

"Get it off me." She said as she got closer. Wondering what she was playing at I decided to go along. I raised my hand to wipe it off but it was swatted away before it even got close. "Don't use your hands." Thats when it hit me what she wanted me to do. I was more than happy to oblige as I kissed her. The kiss itself was short and sweet. We finally parted and I noticed Akame had a gleam in her eyes. "I might need to start having leftovers more often."

 **Timeskip couple hours**

"My head still hurts." Kurome complained as we walked.

"Well it's your own fault for eating the rest of that ice cream you stole." I said.

"But it was so good." She said almost drooling. She then clutched her head again in pain. She had been like this for the past hour. I don't even want to know how she has made a brain freeze or whatever these after affects are last this long. It was just unnatural. We had found her at her lookout position with the empty container and Kurome herself was on the floor holding her head.

"How about we go sit over there until your head starts feeling better." I said pointing over to a nearby bench. She was more than happy to agree with my idea as she eagerly made her way over to the bench and sat down. I joined her and while I was sitting down I couldn't help but notice how quiet and peaceful this place seemed to be.

"Tatsumi what are you going to do after war?" That questioned startled me as I had never thought of what I would do after the war.

"To be honest I have no clue at all." I replied. "What about you?" She pondered the question before she replied.

"I don't care what I do as long as I can stay with you and Akame." She said this as she laid her head on my shoulder.

"Don't worry we will always be together." I told her. I then realized that she had fallen asleep. "What to do after the war huh?" I muttered to myself. I began thinking of what I would actually do after the war. I actually spent so long thinking that the sun had even began to set. "Kurome come on we need to head back." I said as I shifted my shoulder to wake her up.

"The prince must wake the princess." I heard her mutter. So she wasn't actually asleep she just wanted me to kiss her. Well I wasn't going to complain so I did as she asked. Our lips parted and her eyes open as green met black. We continued looked into each others eyes and as I moved in to kiss her again I felt a massive killing intent. I looked at the direction of the killing intent and when I saw who it was I only said a single word.

"Esdeath."


	23. The Empire's Strongest

"Esdeath" I said distastefully as I looked at the blue haired sadist. Kurome upon hearing what I had said sprang out of her seat and had drawn Genso.

"Coming to me personally to die? That's so sweet of you please come forward so I can sink my blade into your flesh." Kurome stated as she readied herself. Drawing Toripuru and switching it into sapphire form since emerald would not work on Esdeath I took a stance beside Kurome. I looked behind Esdeath and noticed Akame was also ready to strike and was currently making her way towards Esdeath undetected.

"When I first saw you back during that contest I fell in love with you Tatsumi." Esdeath said in a hurt tone. "I was so happy when I felt those feelings and I had never felt them before. I wanted those feelings to stay with me forever so I took you hostage to make you mine. Then you had to go and escape along with killing my adorable subordinates." She said the last part in an slightly angry tone. "At the time I just thought you were overwhelmed with confusion so I decided to let you have some time to think. But then a few days later I began receiving word of a new member of Night Raid. And you know what they said? A male that looked exactly like you and wielded a blade like then one you used was killing other Teigu users." She was about to speak again before Akame finally got into range for her attack.

Akame leapt towards Esdeath with Murasame and was just inches from stabbing her before something hard to comprehend happened. A phantom like figure of Esdeath walked out of the solid Esdeath. The phantom then became solid herself and walked away from the other Esdeath. While the phantom had walked out of Esdeath Murasame had pierced the original one but something weirder happened. Instead of red blood coming from the wound a giant burst of blue water was in its place. Akame not expecting this jumped back with Murasame expecting a trap. The flow of blue water stopped as soon as Akame had leapt back so I assumed the wound had healed.

"How?" I asked dumbstruck. At this the second Esdeath laughed.

"I guess there was another reason I am glad you escaped from me. You helped me achieve my powers true form." To prove her point more phantoms came out until they came to around a dozen total. "Water is everywhere." She said gleefully. "The best part of water is that it is where ice can be born when it reaches a cold enough temperature. I have mastered the ability to revert my ice to water. And with that mastery I have gained full control of water and am able to bend its power in any way I want. As you just saw I made a water clone of myself. Us humans being made of water ourselves only increases my power. I can even switch places with any of my clones." This news shocked me. Curse had mentioned something like this a long time ago but I had never thought her powers could get this strong.

"Now where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?" She questioned. "Ah now I remember! I of course pieced together that you were whom the reports were speaking of. I was sad to learn that you were on the wrong side so I decided to try and convince you to join us. I would have talked to you sooner but I was tricked by a harlot." She said angrily as frost began to coat the nearby ground. It took me a while to think of who she was speaking of when I remembered Chelsea had disguised herself as me not long ago. "So here I was walking through town today. I was walking past a stand when I heard a woman speaking of how she had already sold out of ice cream for the day. When questioned she told me of their appearance and it just happened that the male sounded like you Tatsumi. So here I was eagerly searching the town for you and here I found you getting all lovey with this girl." She said while sending a murderous glare towards Kurome.

"Hey back off!" Kurome said with venom in her voice. "Tatsumi is mine and Akame's and no one else can have him." Akame who had taken a stance beside me nodded in agreement.

"So you say." Esdeath said as she clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Is this how you feel Tatsumi? If you leave them now and join me I can make sure you live the rest of you life free of worry. I can get you pardoned from your past crimes and everything." Her request made me enraged. Who does she think she is? She is the one who made me homeless in the first place and made my life what it is today. Here I am now finally content with my life and here she is trying to cause havoc in it once again.

"I will never join you Esdeath. Just do the whole world a favor and drop dead." I said harshly to her.

"So be it." She said as she along with her clones summoned various ice weaponry. Along with the weapons a huge ice dome began to encase us until we were trapped inside. The strange thing was that the dome looked like it was slowly growing and the ice beneath us felt like we were moving. "If I can't have you no one can!" With that the fight began.

I would have loved to say we were managing against the onslaught of Esdeaths but that would be a straight up lie. Within the first few seconds all three of us were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

"Any ideas?" Akame shouted while she dodged another ice spear.

"Nope." Kurome said while she blocked an ice sword.

"I got one." I shouted. "Kurome activate your ace in the hole." Nodding she stopped running as Genso began to glow. A brilliant flash then sprang out from the sword momentarily blinding me. After I regained my sight I noticed there were ten Kuromes. Now if I hadn't known what Genso's ace in the hole was I would have thought my eyes were playing tricks one me. The ability was much like Esdeath's water clones with some differences. Unlike a water clone Kurome's clones would bleed red so that they could trick the assailant even more. The even better ability the clones had was they all had Genso and could activate the trump card.

"Now this should be fun." I stated as I stopped running. The fight could finally be even as it was a dozen versus a dozen. Or so I thought until I saw the first explosion. It was the same explosion as the time she had escaped from Curse's ace in the whole. The explosions were going off one by one and ripping everything friend and foe to shreds. Both water clones and Kurome clones were being decimated. I wish I could have said the same for the ice dome that encased us but every time it was damaged it just automatically repaired itself.

"You have got to be joking me." Kurome said dumbstruck at the thought her ace in the hole was already over. On the bright side there were no clones left. The bad news was that also included the friendly clones.

"You're actually putting up quite a fight. I am glad I get to savor this moment." Esdeath said with a grin stretched on her face as she summoned even more clones.

"How isn't she being drained from using such powerful moves?" Akame asked. I myself had noticed that until now. Normally someone would be hindered by now from using such much power from their Teigu but here Esdeath was still using it without breaking a sweat.

"I don't know but we need to figure out how to kill her because escape does not seem like it will ever be a option until she is dead." Kurome said as she activated her trump card to attempt and fight some clones. Akame took a glance at her sister and got a determined look in her eyes. She then took a look at me and smiled before she sliced herself with Murasame. I began panicking at what I had just saw. Why would Akame kill herself? I began to rush towards her before a familiar voice spoke.

 _'Don't you remember that is her trump card?'_ Curse said in a disappointed tone.

'Oh yeah I knew that.' I replied just happy Akame was going to be fine.

An unearthly scream then echoed from Akame as the effects of her trump card began to take effect. The white in her eyes turned a dark purple color that was nearly black and cursed black runes began to circle around in her red eyes. The familiar cursed runes that showed on Murasame's victims before they died began to tattoo themselves onto Akame in a blood red color. After the transformation Akame just flicked Murasame before she took off at speeds almost impossible registered to the eye. She clashed into a water clone and killed it within seconds causing a good amount of the other clones to began to focus their attention on her. I could understand why Akame had decided to use her trump card. Even though it was a one time use trump card it caused her physical strengths to become stronger than no other human could even hope to achieve. She needed this because due to most of the enemies being made out of water that meant Murasame couldn't poison them much like an organic Teigu.

"Might as well summon my own army." I said as I summoned One Many Army. I then activated its ace in the hole and summoned the three enemies I had slain before with the blade.

"You have summoned us?" Death asked as he along with Famine and War keeled before me.

"You see those blue haired girls?" I said as I pointed to the water clones which had started to increase to around three dozen as Esdeath made more to try and kill us. "Go kill them." With a nod they summoned their weapons and jumped into battle.

I began scanning the battlefield for the real Esdeath and spotted her near the dome of the roof which itself had grown about three times bigger than when it had started. Esdeath herself was sitting in a ice chair as clones kept coming from her. Just as I was about to start planning a way to get her down here I noticed the frozen floor beneath us stop. I heard a cracking sound as a giant crack went around the dome. The dome then shattered as giant shards of ice began to rain down from the ceiling. I was luck enough to dodge the falling debris along with Akame and Kurome. The water clones along with the horseman were not so lucky.

"Seriously!?" I exclaimed as I looked at where the horseman were crushed. "Just how many ace in the holes is she going to shut down after activation!?" It was true. Out of all three ace in the holes ever activated she had shut down every single one of them. I took a quick glance at our surroundings and noticed we were no longer in the city but in a desolate wasteland. Esdeath who was sitting onto of a giant ice pillar, just sent my a sly smile as the frozen shards along the ground began to move. They rose in the air before they flew towards the pillar and began to latch on to it. After all the pieces had latched on ice began to grow from them. After the ice stopped growing the result was a giant ice figure in the shape of Esdeath herself with Esdeath inside at the heart.

"Just how much endurance does she have." A almost out of breath Kurome said. Akame looked better than her sister due to her her trump card but she herself was becoming exhausted.

"My form won't last much longer." Akame stated. True to her words her eyes returned to normal and the tattoos faded to a color slightly darker than her skin. Her stance faltered and she was brought down to one knee as she spat out blood.

"Akame!" I shouted as I rushed forward and deconstructed One Man Army so I could put Life's Egg on her.

"I'll be alright." She said as she shakily got up.

"We need to end this soon." I muttered. I then looked at Esdeath and noticed that the ice giant had began to gather blue balls of energy in both hands.

'Curse I need Shirudo now!' I said.

 _'Gimme a dang second. After we get out of this battle you are going to fuse every single combination so we don't have to wait every time you need to use a new one.'_ I cursed myself knowing he was right. If I had made Shirudo prior to this mess I would have already deployed it. _'Luckily I had a feeling you would need it so I began fusing myself with Toripuru, Genso, and Murasame when that ice monstrosity was made.'_ I was happy that Curse was such a good battle strategist as he had probably saved us with his prediction. Soon I felt Toripuru form into a shield that had no color and was see through.

"I swear if she kills this ace in the hole I am going to be absolutely pissed." I said. I deployed the shield into a dome and activated its ace in the hole and trump card just in time as Esdeath released the energy she had gathered. A relentless torrent of ice and water slammed into the shield and I began to feel the trump card activate. The trump card basically absorbed any damage done to the shield and converted it into a energy like substance. It then release that energy inside the dome and made whoever was inside it feel like they were in top condition.

"That feels nice." Akame said pleased. Kurome nodded in agreement. The barrage then ended and I noticed the facial expression of ice Esdeath contort into one of surprise at us still being alive. Just then the ace in the hole kicked in. Much like the trump card it absorbed the damage. But instead of a renewing our energy it returned the damage at whoever had caused it. A giant beam of crystal blue energy erupted from Shirudo and slammed into Esdeath. Chunks of ice began flying off the giant until both arms and half of the face had been completely blown off. The damage was even great enough to cause Esdeath to be kneeling. I then noticed that the ice was beginning to regenerate and she was taking up stance again.

"Oh no you don't" I said as I dissipated Shirudo and gripped Toripuru in my hands. I then activated its ace in the hole and slammed the blade into the ground. The ground began shaking as an earthquake took place. The earthquake didn't cause any harm to me and luckily not to Kurome or Akame but it did a number on Esdeath. Now her ice form was missing all limbs and a head. I then saw the ice moving again and I thought it was already reforming until I noticed cracks appearing. The cracks tore what was left of the torso into chunks before they before they ejected towards my direction. Luckily Toripuru was still in sapphire form and I cut through the chunks with ease. When I returned my vision back to Esdeath I was actually surprised to see a little blood coming from the corner of her mouth.

"I gotta give you credit." She said as she spat out some blood. "This is the first time I have bled in battle for a long time." She then began another assault of projectiles.

'Curse you got any ideas on how to end this battle fast?' I asked as I dodged another spear. This battle had gone on long enough and my energy was nearly out. I had to summon One Man Army again to regain my stamina.

 _'None that won't end with a cost.'_ He replied. I then suddenly remembered a previous conversation we had.

'Hey curse remember that really stupid idea I had with Murasame?' I asked hoping he would remember.

 _'I told you that wouldn't work. Life's Egg can't beat the curse.'_ He said in a condescending tone.

'What if I used the last charge of Toripuru's trump card with Life's Egg?' I asked hoping this would work.

' _I say it has a chance of working.'_ He replied unsure.

'Good enough for me.' I said as I steeled my nerves.

"Akame I got an idea." I shouted towards the red eyed girl. I then explained the plan hoping she would agree to this. She met my eyes and I could tell she wanted to say no but she saw how serious I was and knew I wouldn't give up. She gave a nod and began closing in on Esdeath along with myself. Kurome managed to get most of Esdeath's attention as she was having trouble dodging so many spears. When I got within a couple of feet of Esdeath I dropped Toripuru and began the plan.

"Esdeath!" I shouted as I ran towards her. She looked at me curiously as to why I was running towards her without my weapon. Fearing something was amiss she threw another spear but it clipped my shoulder. Grimacing in pain I continued running towards her and leapt at her. She managed to summon a blade of ice and penetrate the right side of my gut. I grunted in pain but still continued my plan and wrapped my arms around Esdeath. This caused her to drop her blade in shock. Seeing this as the perfect chance to strike I shouted, "Akame now!" The black haired assassin ran from behind me and I felt the blades of Murasame and Toripuru go through my gut and into Esdeath's.

The pain was immense but luckily the blades were pulled out just as fast as they entered. I fell to the ground in pain and closed my eyes. I felt the curse pf Murasame as it began to spread slowly from the wound. I also felt Life's Egg trying to combat the curse as it also tried closing my wounds. The wounds themselves closed but the curse still spread but at a much slower pace than it normally did. I then felt something else trying to enter my body. It felt as though life itself was breathing through me and I opened my eyes to see that Akame was using the last of Toripuru's trump card. The curse stopped moving from where it was and slowly began to dissipate.

"It actually worked." I said with a laugh. Akame offered a smile along with a arm which I happily accepted. After I got back on my two feet I looked over to where Esdeath was still standing.

"I wasn't strong enough." She said with anger. The curse had already spread almost everywhere on Esdeath and it was honestly surprising she was still alive. She looked me dead in the eyes and then closed hers as she let out a grunt of pain and fell to the ground. Esdeath had died.


	24. The Most Idiotic Plan Ever - The Sequel

"Ugh that still stings." I said as I traced over the tattoo that covered the front of my torso.

 _'Like I've said many times. This is what you get for surviving Murasame.'_ Curse said annoyed.

'Still it didn't have to leave a painful tattoo.' I replied.

 _'Death or tattoo, I think you got the better option.'_ I knew he was right so I decided to shut up. It had been a month since the battle with Esdeath and life had been going pretty well. After the battle with Esdeath Akame, Kurome, and myself had attempted to walk back to the city but soon fainted. We had woken up at the temporary Night Raid hideout apparently they had gotten worried when we didn't return. That worry was only increased when they heard of a giant moving ice dome going through town. So they ended up following the massive trail and found the three of us passed out halfway back to town.

When we had woken up I immediately let out a scream in pain as I felt my chest sting. Apparently Murasame didn't appreciate me surviving its curse so it instead left its cursed runes as a painful tattoo on my body. The runes started near my gut where the blade had pierced me and five veins of the runes spread from that point. Three of them wrapped around my torso, one went down to my right foot around my ankle, and the final one stretched up to just beside my left eye. So after we had woken up we learned the other Teigu users had returned to the capital after learning that Esdeath had died. We carried out the assassination with ease after that. Ever since we had left the city of Kyoroch and had been deciding once. During the month the Revolutionary Army had capture almost every major place besides the capital itself. The reason they had yet to capture that varied.

The first reason is they wanted Night Raid to go in and kill the Teigu Users. They were really pushing on that since it was the main cause of the second reason. Apparently anytime the army came close to the capital a strange gas will appear and dispose of anyone it touched. They assumed the gas was the result of one of the enemy Teigus. If it wasn't the gas that attack them it was the Teigu users themselves. So basically we had one objective and that was to kill every Teigu user left. Most of the Teigu users I figured would cause some trouble but would be dispatched pretty easily but I knew a couple would be a pain like Budo. A knock on the door broke me out of my thoughts.

"Come in." I called out as I put a shirt on. The door creaked open and revealed Najenda who was toying with the now appropriate sized symmetrical blade arm Susanoo had made her.

"Hey Tatsumi feeling better?" She asked as she leaned on the door frame.

"Yeah just stings now but other than that no problem at all." I replied.

"Good that means you can come with me. Don't bring your Teigu's because you're going hunting with Susanoo and me." She left without saying another word.

* * *

 **Timeskip** **Many Hours**

"You know when most people say hunting you go get food. But I would have loved to known we were doing this kind." I said as I walked through an alley.

"But this is the best kind of hunting!" Najenda replied.

"You do know we are so screwed right?" I asked.

"Yup. But I got a contingency plan." She said confidently.

"I wished I had already picked out the flowers for my funeral." I said as I wiped a fake tear from my face.

"Oh quit being a baby we're not going to die. Okay we might die but think about what happens when we succeed!" She said as a grin formed on her face.

"Still we should've brought more people." I replied.

"Too many people would have been suspicious." She said as she stopped walking and leaned against a wall.

"Still would've been safer in the long run." I said joining her on the wall.

"Well too late now and Susanoo should be done with his part soon." She said. We didn't have to wait long before a explosion sounded off nearby. "Well you ready to fight Tatsumi?" She asked.

"Just give me a nice funeral by the sea." I said as I drew a regular blade.

'Curse you sure this will work?' I asked as half of this plan solely relied on him.

 _'Absolutely. Just do as I say and it will work.'_ He said confidently. A blur then jumped downed from a roof above into the alley way. I almost attacked before I realized it was Susanoo.

"I have done as you asked." He said. "But I still do not like the idea of this plan being so uneven." He said unsure.

"Don't worry soon we are going to make it even." Najenda said. The sound of several armor boots clanking on the ground soon reached my ears. Soon enough a whole battalion of men came around the corner with their weapons drawn.

"Stop right there Night Raid scum." One of them shouted. "We have orders to capture you alive and if you refuse we will kill." He said.

I tossed a look back at Susanoo and mouthed the words "Go, we'll be fine." He nodded and took off.

"Alright we'll play your game." Najenda said as she put her hands in the air in a surrender gesture. The soldiers then trained their eyes on me and the blade in my hand. Following Najenda's lead I dropped the plain sword on the ground. The soldiers then came up to us and handcuffed us. As I was about to say something to piss off the soldiers just for fun I felt something collide with the back of my head knocking me out.

* * *

 **Timeskip Many Hours**

"-sumi. Tatsumi!" The sound of my name being shouted woke me up. For some reason my body was standing up while I was asleep and I could hear loud noises. I opened my eyes and was greeting with daylight. Scanning my surrounding I fought we were in a stadium like building and the stands were packed with people. I looked down at myself to find I was in the stocks. I then looked to my left to find Najenda in the same position. She was also missing her robotic limb.

"About time you woke up. I thought I would have to try this attempt solo and die." She joked.

"How long have I been out?" I asked her noticing the sun was declining now.

"I don't know. I just awoke myself." She said.

"Great just great. So let me guess public execution?" I said jerking my head to motion the stocks we were in.

"Yup. To show what happens when you threaten public order." She said mockingly.

"Still how did you know this would all happen? Like this plan is insane!" I wanted to know how the heck she devised this plan. There were so many unaccountable factors and yet all of them were going as planned so far.

"Simple." She stopped speaking to build up a dramatic mood. "The plan is there is no solid plan. I have just been winging it." She said the last part with a grin.

"What happened to the wise and cautious leader of Night Raid?" I asked wondering just who the heck was this women.

"She had her prey cornered and jumped in for the kill." She said with a slight feral grin. Before we could continue a loud authoritative voice echoed through the arena. I could not see the source of the voice but only hear it due to my position.

"Silence!" All the chatter in the stands quieted down at the voice. "Today we have gathered here to execute some rebels. But not just any rebels, here we have two Night Raid members. The best thing is these Night Raid members are the ones with the highest bounties on them. One of them is Najenda the leader of Night raid and the other is Tatsumi slayer of Esdeath." His last words surprised me as I wondered how he knew I killed Esdeath. But if he knew shouldn't he know of Akame and Kurome as well? "Today we shall execute them and send an example to the rebels. Do not pick a fight with The Empire!" At the end of his words the crowd gave a eager response of clapping and killing.

"Are these people idiots?" I asked. "Do they not want The Empire gone?"

"They may not care or they are being threatened by them." Najenda said jerking her head to the right. With some slight stretching I managed to see that the other Teigu users were here. Before I could ask what they were doing here I felt the hairs on my neck stand up as I felt electricity going through the air. With a solid thump a man landed in front of me. He was a tall muscular man with spiky blond hair and blue eyes. He wore a dark gray suit of armor with white pants and a red cloak. His shoulder guards were notably large and had yellow markings on them.

"Great General Budo." Najenda said. Budo upon hearing his name looked her in the eye before he responded.

"Since I'm feeling generous today I will allow you to have say your last words." He said as electricity began sparking on his gauntlets.

"Oh I got a few." Najenda said as a grin formed on her face. "I was thinking that before you kill us you should handle the capitals danger beast problem." A look of confusion appeared on Budo's face. Just then a large shadow appeared and looking up you could see Najenda's personal danger beast. The beast stopped mid air and five things began falling from the beast before it flew away. As it was flying away I caught a glimpse of pink and I hard the sounds of three bullets being fired. The first two slammed into the stocks destroying them setting Najenda and myself free. Although the bullet was a little to close to my face for comfort I couldn't complain at Mine's accuracy. The third bullet slammed into Budo's gauntlets as he barley blocked it.

Budo then flew up into the air not noticing we were free and released the electricity he had built up at the retreating form of the beast only to be blocked by more sniper shots. Just thing a figure slammed into Budo and the momentum caused the ground to crack as they slammed into the ground. The figure who turned out to be Susanoo rose from the ground as he had his weapon wedged between both of Budo's gauntlets. Budo looked as he was using a good amount to strength to stop the blade from piercing him. Twisting them he managed to launch Susanoo across the ground towards the other Teigu users. Just then the four other items slammed into the ground. With their blades sunk into the ground Murasame and Genso were there with Life's Egg hanging off Genso. Beside the blades was one of Najenda's spare arms. However I noticed this was one of the failed ones that Susanoo had made. This one just happened to be the twenty foot long blade.

"Oh I am going to have some fun." Najenda said in a evil sing song voice as she attach the arm. Surprisingly she was able to lift the blade so I assumed that arm gave her a monstrous amount of strength. As soon as she got the blade ready she went towards Susanoo who was currently having fun with the other Teigu users.

I myself went over to the blades and summoned Catastrophe. This was the deadly combination of Curse, Murasame, Genso, and Life's Egg that was just plain destructive. The blade itself was a massive two-handed sword. The grip was a obsidian black and halfway up to the guard it had a pure white orb. The blade itself was a fiery red that flickered embers off of it and was split in half. Just as the blade was summoned I felt electricity in the air and turned around and blocked the bolt of lighting that was sent at me.

"You are the boy that killed Esdeath?" He asked clearly not impressed.

"Well I had some help." I said as I readied Catastrophe.

"Well this time you have none so you will perish by my hand!" He began launching a barrage of lightning bolts at me. I managed to block them all but I failed to notice the yellow symbol forming below my feet. It flashed and a giant column of Electricity sprouted from it and shocked me violently. When the attack ended I was on my knees as electricity crackled off me.

"I'm surprised you're still alive." Budo noted. "Perhaps I should kill the others before I finish you." As he said this he turned towards where Najenda and Susanoo were and began charging an electric orb. I could tell just by the amount of sheer power that this one emitted it would kill if it made contact. I tried to shout out to warn them but my voice wouldn't work. Najenda who had just got knocked back by one of her opponents. brought her blade up into an arc in attempt to retaliate. Budo took this opportunity and released the orb. I could only watch helplessly as the orb slammed into Najenda at full strength.


	25. Rule 2: Learn to Improvise

Most people when hit by a massive amount of electricity tend to scream in pain. Najenda was not one of those people as the orb smashed into her. You could see the electricity crackle violently as it connect with her body but after little bit all of that stopped and Najenda was standing up perfectly fine.

"How!?" Budo and I exclaimed at the sight of her still standing. Najenda who became aware she was being targeting after the electric attack, backed away from her fight after knocking the opponent back and looked at us.

"Tatsumi I told you I had a contingency plan." She said this as she raised her arm. I looked at it wondering what it was suppose to symbolism before I saw it. In her hand was one of Lubbock's wires. I then looked at her body and with sunlight glinting off them I could barely make out the spider web of wires that crossed her body. I then noticed there was a heavy amount of wires around her feet. I then caught on to what she had done. She had Lubbock place the wires on her before we went on this mission. Najenda knew these wires could conduct electricity so she had them wrapped around her. The reason they were around her feet mostly was so they could force the electricity into the her boots which were rubber.

"You know I would have loved some wires." I said with a weak voice as I was still recuperating after the electric attack.

"But that would have ruined the surprise. Now hurry up and finish your fight. Akame and Kurome stayed home just so you could have those Teigu's put them to good use!" With that she went back to assisting Susanoo. Budo who was still slightly distracted by what happened managed to barely evade my slash as I attacked.

"I should have just killed you in the first place." He sneered as he chucked a lightning bolt at me.

"I guess you should." I replied as I dodged. We then began to exchange a barrage of attacks with neither of us gaining the upper edge. A cry of pain caused us to stop mid attack as we looked to see the source. Najenda was bleeding horribly as she had just lost her other arm.

"Susanoo!" I called out to the Teigu. He turned to look at me while blocking multiple attacks. "Run and get Najenda out of here I'll buy you time. Send me backup as soon as possible." He looked like he wanted to argue but Najenda was his owner. Her safety was his first priority. With hesitation he nodded and quickly grabbed Najenda before taking off.

"Time to get serious." I muttered as I readied Catastrophe. I launched another attack as I noticed in the corner of my eye the other Teigu users making their way towards me. I knew in a straight fight I had no chance at winning so I decided to start activating some trump cards. I dispatched Catastrophe and summoned Osore. The two-handed sword formed in my hands just as the other Teigu users reached within striking distance of me. With no hesitation I activated it's trump card. A resounding dark red bubble pulsed from the blade and expanded towards the arena walls. Immediately the trump card began to work as everyone including Budo took a step back.

"What is this feeling?" Budo murmured barely heard by me. "I feel as though I don't wont to fight. I feel as though I know I will lose." He was clearly confused as to what was going on.

"This Teigu's trump card is made to strike fear into the hearts of nearby enemies. " I said this as I eyed the other Teigu users. Two of them I remembered clearly as I fought them the day I flew in the sky. If I remembered right their names they were Ketseuki and Kashikoi. I could never forget the name of the man who slapped me with a beard. Two of the others I felt like I should have remembered but I honestly didn't remember. They were both female and looked strikingly like sisters. That's when it hit me it was the sisters that Akame and Kurome fought the same day. The one on the left had bright yellow hair and amber eyes while the one of the left had silver hair and gray eyes. In their hands were staffs. The blonde had a sun symbol on the top of her staff and the silver had a moon symbol. The last guy I couldn't see as he was wearing a full suit of armor with two massive shields in his arms.

"You know what the best part is?" I said as I felt the trump card intensify further. "If the fear is great enough I can kill them with fear alone." I looked at the enemies and saw that none of them were that scared yet which was kind of disappointing. Budo who had finally managed to combat his fear began charging his gauntlets up. He release the built up energy towards the sky which began to darken with clouds. Soon splintered lighting bolts began to rain down towards me. I had to retreat to dodge most of them and block a few which ended up burning me severely. Luckily I had Life's Egg which treated the injuries in no time. I then began to activate the next part of my improvised plan.

I dispatched Osore and summoned Rungado the fusion of Toripuru, Murasame, and Curse. The Teigu itself wasn't a weapon like most others. Instead an eerie black mist began to seep from my body as Murasame's cursed runes began to spread across my body. As this happened the rest of the Teigu users began to recover from Osore's fear. Ketseuki rushed forward with Banpaia slashing towards me. I evaded the blow mostly and allowed it to clip my left shoulder. He grinned as he wounded me but that grin immediately turned into one of horror as he saw the runes on my body began to flow through his Teigu.

"What are you doing!?" He asked as he tried shaking Banpaia to get the runes to go off.

"You see Rungado is one of my favorite Teigus. Anytime a blade connects with me the runes transfer to the attacker filling them with a diluted version of Murasame's poison. While it won't kill it will slowly weaken you over time. My favorite thing though is the trump card!" As I said this I snapped my fingers and saw the runes begin to glow. "If I even land a scratch on you now the poison will turn into its normal form and kill you within seconds." His eyes widened in fear as he backed up behind his allies. My grin only formed as my plan had worked.

"Ah that's the fear I was looking for." I said as I once again summoned Osore. I then activated it's ace in the hole. The ace in the hole was a very good one to use on a group of enemies. Once a strong enough enemy had reached a certain amount of fear the ace in the hole would kill them. But after the enemy had died the fear he had harbored would double and go into each of his allies minds worsening their fear. I could only watch as I saw Ketseuki's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he dropped to the ground dead. Before I could watch the rest of the ace in the hole I felt something was off. I then noticed something was wrong and turned to find that Budo had disappeared. I began searching for him and looked into the sky to see yellow. They sky was no longer visible as a yellow electric square was hovering above with Budo holding it all. As he noticed me looking at him a twisted grin formed on his face as he lowered his arms and dropped the yellow sky.

With fast thinking I summoned Shirudo and deployed the Teigu shield as the sky slammed into it. I also activated its trump card to recharge my energy which had began to dwindle. Budo's attack continue to assault the should relentlessly and I watched to my horror as the shield began to crack. Luckily the attack ended as the shield began to reach its breaking point. After the yellow had faded all I could see was smoke. When the smoke cleared I got a clear view of the stadium completely annihilated to rubble. I began searching for other signs of life and was sad to see Budo along with the others completely fine encased in a purple hexagonal shield. The worse part was not one of them looked scared anymore from Osore. So either those shields blocked its influence or Budo's lightning sky destroyed its aura. Clearly they were just as shocked to see me alive as I was with them. I saw Budo who was now on the ground say something. I then saw Kashikoi nod and take off out of the stadium.

"That was an impressive shield." I heard a new voice say. It was a deep one that sounded like a slight echo so I figured it was the person inside the armor. "But can yours do this?" He asked as a massive shield encased the remains of the stadium. Soon purple spike of energy began to protrude from the shield and shoot in my direction. While dodging them I saw the sisters began to fly in the air as they crossed their staffs. Two massive balls of energy one looking like the sun and the other looking like the moon formed in the sky. Soon the sky began to rain with fire and comets. Budo began going around placing more lighting symbols on the ground which would erupt making it even harder to avoid all the constant things being shot at me.

'Curse I'm out of improvising, your turn!' I said hoping he had a plan.

 _'Either use Catastrophe's trump card or use Murasame's ace in the hole.'_ Was his reply.

Deciding on the one I would prefer I summoned Catastrophe and activated its trump card. The ground began to rumble as geysers of lava began to shoot at the ground towards the enemy. They had to stop their attacks and dodge the geysers as they scrambled. I notice the gigantic purple should dissipate as a much smaller ones began to surround them to protect them from the lava. The lava assaulted the shields but could not break them. But I knew that when the shields dropped there would more than likely be immediate death as the result. The ground began to shake again and I thought it was the trump card activating again somehow before I saw a huge shadow.

A giant grotesque man was walking towards the arena. He was about fifty feet tall and was heavily distorted. By the look of it there was a tiny body fused with the giant one. Riding on his shoulder was Kashikoi with laser's shooting from his eyes. The lasers connected with the ground near the holes from where lava geysers were spewing from causing the ground to clog up the lave geysers. I then saw Kashikoi opening his mouth as a giant orb of energy began to charged. The orb gave a small flash as it reached its peak before it released a gigantic laser towards me. I raised Catastrophe as I cut the laser in half as it went between the split in the blade.

I then noticed the rockets that were coming towards me. I charged Catastrophe and launched several fireballs from the blade to counter the explosive explosive warheads. Sadly I failed to notice the pissed off mutt as its fist slammed into me launching me into the ground a few feet away.

"And this totally wasn't an uneven fight already." I muttered distastefully. I spit blood out of my mouth as I shakily got up. I was heavily outnumbered seven to one. All of them were approaching me knowing they had the upper advantage in this fight. Budo was at the front grinning madly as electricity bounced from one gauntlet to the other.

"Any last words Night Raid scum?" He asked. I began trying to think of a way out of this mess before I spotted something that brought a grin to my face.

"Didn't we already tell you to take care of your danger beast problem?" I asked as I launched a quick fireball from Catastrophe and began running. As I ran I looked above as figures began dropping from the sky and each of them landing with a solid thump.

"Took you guys long enough." I said as I got close to them.

"Holy crap man you look terrible." Lubbock said.

"Then how about you fight eight Teigu users, kill one in the process, and not look terrible." I shot back. He backed down knowing he would have no chance at all.

"You did good surviving this long Tatsumi." Bulat said from within his Incursio armor as he summoned his spear.

"Yeah just let us take care of it." Leon said eager for battle.

"Please do." I said as I sat on the ground. They nodded and took off towards the enemy. I saw Mine over to the far right on top of a a giant bundle of ruins firing sniper bullets at the psycho girl with Schere standing guard as she held off the mutt. Bulat had engaged the guy with shields and was trading blows with him. Lubbock and Leone had engaged the the giant man and Kashikoi. I was watching the battle until I felt two figures sit down next to me.

"So am I in trouble for almost dying?" I asked.

"Well your still conscious." Akame said.

"And still alive." Kurome finished.

"So I think if you make us food we'll forgive you." They said in sync. I chuckled at their antics as I disassembled Catastrophe. "Shall we join the battle?" I asked as I handed them Genso and Murasame. They gave a nod as they stood up. Standing up myself I began looking for Budo before I saw him heading over to Bulat with his gauntlets crackling. I also saw the sun and moon sisters heading over to Mine and Schere.

"Why don't you two go fight those sisters over there. I think it will be entertaining to have a sister battle." I said. Smiling at the idea they began making their way over to their targets. I returned my attention to Budo and summoned One Man Army. Without the endurance the blade gave me I wouldn't last much longer against Budo. I began running towards Budo and had my weapon ready to stab as I was a few feet away. Budo sensing the danger turned around and block the blade.

"Why. Wont. You. Just. Die!" Budo said releasing an electric punch with each word.

"Because I'm not allowed to." I said as I retaliated with my own attack getting a cut on his cheek. Noticing the wound he flew up into the air before he began charging a dangerous amount of electricity. Deciding One Many Army had gave a good amount of my energy back I disassembled it and summoned Death's Grasp. I activated its trump card and took flight to join Budo in the skies. When I caught up to him I saw he had gathered a huge amount of electricity. Unlike the other times this was definitely more powerful than any attack he had previously used. It even looked more destructive than the yellow sky he had made earlier. But unlike the yellow electricity this was a void black. It crackled madly as he charged it more and more. It reached to the point where it looked like it would blow up from the sheer amount of power that was being command.

"Solid Shooter!" I heard him shout as he released the energy. A corrosive black beam streaked it's way towards me. Knowing I only had one option I activated the ace in the hole of Death's grasp. _'L_ _ike Death there are certain things that wont limit you when activated'_ I thought as I remembered Curse's words. Those were words that perfectly described the ace in the hole. It made me able to negate any single attack no matter how powerful it was. So I watched as the black beam went through my body and slammed into the giant.

"You've got to be kidding me." Budo said dumbstruck.

"Nope." I said as I rushed with Toripuru in sapphire form and slashed at his gauntlets. Due to it being in sapphire form and Budo's Teigu having been used tremendously today the Teigu broke with ease. Budo could only watch in horror as I followed up with another attack and stabbed him in the heart. Yanking the blade out I watched as his body sailed towards the ground to where it landed in a bloody heap. I then returned my attention back to my friends. Lubbock and Leone had finished up their battle. After the giant had fallen, Kashikoi was easily overwhelmed by the two. Bulat had managed to pierce the armor of the knight with his spear. Something I found impressive due to how many dang shields the guy used. Akame and Kurome had dispatched their opponents and the last opponents left was the mutt and owner who Mine and Schere were having a little trouble.

I began to fly towards them and saw everyone else was likewise doing the same. "Mine you're taking to long!" I called out as I landed near Schere.

"Shut up! This mutt is the biggest bug I have ever met. It is ling a cockroach, it just won't die!" She said as she fired another barrage of bullets. "I can't even find its core and it doesn't help with that walking bomb!" Deciding to help end this quickly I rushed towards psycho girl and as Mine kept her busy I stabbed her in the gut. Retracting my blade I rushed towards Schere who was dealing with the pissed off mutt. Apparently it didn't like its owner being stabbed and it was mad.

"Need some assistance?" I asked as I took a random slash hoping to get lucky.

"Ah Tatsumi I forgot you were here." She said. I guess she really does focus only on killing. We then stabbed in sync at the beast. We weren't the only ones that attack however. I saw Mine's bullets flying into it, Lubbock's wires cutting, Leone clawing away, Akame and Kurome stabbing, and Bulat plunging his spear into him. We heard a cracking sound like a crystal being broken as the mutt dissolved leaving behind a circular piece broken in half.

"That was a tad bit overkill." Mine said as she walked over to us and looked at the gem. Before I could respond a maniacal laughter echoed through the clearing.

"All of you villains are going to die. I am going to make papa proud and kill them all!" The psycho girl said as she coughed up blood. "Time to go boom." She said as the biggest explosion I ever saw happened.


	26. Meeting With Royalty

"I love this shield." I said as I watched the explosion obliterate the nearby area. Before the explosion had set off I had barely managed to bring up Shirudo. I had also activated the trump card once again and everyone was being restored to full energy.

"You and me both." Lubbock replied.

"So what's the plan now?" I asked no one in particular.

"Isn't it obvious?" Leone asked. "We kill Honest." She said with a bloodthirsty feline smile.

"Isn't there anything else in the way?" I couldn't believe it. Thinking about it there was nothing left to get in our way besides regular soldiers and they were just pushovers. All we had to do now was walk into the palace and kill him.

"Wasn't there that bird guy?" Kurome asked. It took me awhile to remember just who she was talking about, to be honest I completely forgot about him.

"Eh who cares? It's just him versus us. No chance we can lose to him." I said confidently. I wasn't trying to be cocky or arrogant I was just stating the simple truth. What chance did that one person have against the majority of Night Raid. "So who's ready to complete our final assassination?" I asked as I dispersed the shield since the explosion had ended. Everyone gave a glance at each other before they let out a war cry in agreement.

We began making our way to the palace and surprisingly we didn't encounter any soldiers or people. It was strange as it was close to the middle of the day so the streets definitely should have been more crowded.

After walking through the third abandoned street I had enough and asked, "Where is everyone?" At this Bulat gave a laugh.

"Well lets see, you kinda scared everyone away with that fight and the Revolutionary army is currently invading right now so everyone is either fighting or hiding." His words gave me a thought as I realized something.

"Don't tell me Najenda planned from the start to use me as the biggest distraction in history." I asked not believing how complex that woman's plans were.

"You bet she did." Lubbock said as a smile crossed his face.

"Well don't I have the best boss ever?" I said sarcastically. We continued walking until we approached the outer wall of the palace. There were two guards standing outside the gate looking bored out of their minds. We stopped and just as I was about to ask what the plan was Mine pulled out Pumpkin and began to charge the gun. Seconds later a power shot released from the gun reducing the gate to rubble and killing the guards in the process.

"Thats one way to get in." I said as I looked at the destruction. Apparently The Empire had expected an attack on the palace itself due to when I looked beyond the destroyed gate I saw a massive army with the winged dude at the front.

"That's a lot of enemies." Leone said excitedly as she twisted and popped her neck.

"Don't get too eager." Bulat said as he drew his spear.

"Come on Bulat, let her have some fun." Lubbock said.

"This is gonna cause me to gain an appetite." Akame and Kurome said in sync.

"You always have an appetite." I replied.

"Time to exterminate some bugs." Mine said as she readied Pumpkin.

"What were we doing again?" Schere asked as she looked at the soldiers drawing Extase.

The army in front of us had yet to make a move as they seemed to be waiting on the command of the wing man. If I remembered correctly his name was either Run or Ran eh I'll just wing it.

"Run how you doing? I don't suppose you want to just surrender now do you?" I asked. He shuffled in the air a bit as he looked at us. I looked into his eyes and saw fear and the lack of will to fight. He didn't want to be here but something was forcing him to.

"I wish I could but I got something that was offered to me if I succeed in defeating you." He said. "But we both know me winning is probably the least likely thing to happen so I want to make a request." This arose my curiosity so I had to see what he wanted.

"And that is?" I asked letting the end trail.

"Make Honest suffer." He replied dead serious.

"With pleasure." I said as I switched Toripuru to ruby and charged. I went straight into a mountain of soldiers as I hacked and slashed at any piece of armor I saw. With each kill I gained in Toripuru's ruby form I gained even more of my energy back. The sounds of combat rang throughout the air as I heard all sorts of weapons and explosions going off. In the corner of my eyes I could see Run shooting his deadly feathers as I saw Mine returning fire. I kept killing and killing until a mountain of bodies rose around me. After roughly half an hour of fighting the sounds of combat had stopped. I looked over to my companions to see similar corpse mountains surrounded them as well. The only opponent left alive was Run who was in bad shape. His Teigu had long shatter and he was kneeling on the ground as blood poured from multiple wounds that laced across his body.

I calmly approached him with Toripuru as I readied myself the end his life. Upon seeing me approaching I saw a smile cross his lips.

"Remember your words." He said. I nodded at him and descended Toripuru on his neck and I watched his head roll away from his body.

"Don't worry I will." I said to the now dead Run. Before any more words were spoken a mad mans laughter broke through the air. We all turned towards the sound and we were met with a group of six. At the head was a young man with tan skin, golden eyes and lilac hair. He had a noticeable X-shaped scar on his face and a crown-like headgear. His clothing consisted of a white skintight shirt that revealed his stomach and white pants.

"Finally those pest are dead." The man said happily. "Now Wild Hunt can join the fun." With this they drew their weapons. The weapons themselves were clearly not normal in any way as they produced an aura of power.

"More Teigu users!?" I asked not believing it. "Wasn't there suppose to be close to fifty of them ever made? It seems like we have found every single dang one!"

"Tatsumi go find Honest with Akame and Kurome. He may be using this as a distraction." Bulat said as he charged at an opponent.

"But-" I tried to speak but was cut off.

"Dude I suggest you go before anything else happens!" Lubbock said. As much as I didn't want to leave my companions behind I knew this was the best course of action. I took a glance at Akame and Kurome to see they had similar expressions. They met my eyes and gave a hesitant nod. We started sprinting towards the entrance to the palace and as I was entering the door I took one last look at my friends. Lubbock's eyes met mine as a grin formed on his face. I nodded trusting that they could handle themselves.

We navigated the maze like corridors of the palace killing guards and searching hallways trying to find an indication to the throne room. After dozens of dead ends, heading back outside, and killing a hundred guards we finally found the large doors to the throne room.

"This is it." I stated. "Any last encouraging words?" Akame and Kurome both looked at each other before nodding.

"Can we have a buffet of food tonight to celebrate our victory?" Akame asked. I couldn't help but laugh at her. Here we are getting ready to kill the leader of The Empire and here she is talking about food. Then again if she didn't talk about food it wouldn't be Akame.

"All the food you can eat." I said. This seemed to make both of them happy as they hugged me.

"We also got a treat for you tonight." Kurome said in a tone I had never heard her speak before. Before I could even ask what she meant, she flung open the doors and walked into the room. Inside the room itself was six elite looking guards, a fat old man probably Honest, and a young kid resting on a throne. Before we even had a chance to do anything the fat man started yelling commands.

"Guards eliminate them!" He said in a scared voice as he nibbled on a slab of meat. The guards following the command quickly rushed at us but were quickly cut down in a matter of seconds. This seemed the scare Honest more as he finished the meat he was eating on. "Your highness you must activate it now!" He said the young boy. I looked in confusion as the boy looked as he was preparing to do something.

"Wait!" I shouted. This caused the kid to stop his actions. "Do you have any idea what is going on out there?" I asked. The young boy seemed to ponder these words as Honest rambled incoherent words in fear. "People are dying because of your actions. You need to stop what you are doing and face the punishment you deserve." My words seemed to have some kind of influence on the kid as he stopped what he was doing. Honest however did not like the influence I seemed to have on him.

"Don't listen to them. They are members of Night Raid!. These are the scum that have been causing most of the trouble recently for The Empire. They are trying to turn you against the glorious Empire!" The boy took a look at honest as he nodded.

"Don't listen to that fat lying piece of crap." Kurome said with venom. Honest flinched at those words. "He has been lying to you ever since you assumed command. He is the reason people are suffering. He is the reason the Revolutionary Army formed. We will kill this man and restore peace." The kid became confused as he heard these words.

"Is this true?" He asked Honest.

"Of course not!" He said as spit flew out of his mouth. "They are rebels! They are trying to deceive you. Who was the one who guided you from the young boy to the emperor you are today? Thats right it was me. I have graciously offered you my wisdom up until now and we have never had any problems besides a few traitors here and there!" Honest was shaking whether from being scared or madness I didn't know.

"You need to stop being influenced by what they are saying. I have always guided you to what was right and wrong and you have agreed with me every time. Stop letting yourself become a puppet to these rebels!" He said as the emperor nodded to his words. I decided the best bet at ending this peacefully was trying to make the kid act directly.

"Stop listening to this man. He is wrong and your just making people suffer. Surrender now and end all of this suffering!" I shouted. This seemed to have the opposite effect that I had wanted and only seemed to make the kid mad.

"Shut up!" He exclaimed as he began doing what he was before. "I hate being told what to do." At those words Honest started showing the boy with praise telling him he was making the right decisions and was the leader The Empire needed.

"But-" I tried to say but the kid kept shouting.

"SHUT UP! I AM THE EMPEROR AND I DO WHATEVER I WANT!" As he said this as he stood up on his throne. He then shouted another set of words, "I am the emperor of this realm!" At this the ground began to violently shake as Honest began to grin like a mad men.

"Behold The Empires trump card, Shikoutazer! A Teigu only able to be wielded by those of the royal bloodline. Its power is comparable to that of a gods! No wait it is god!" He said this as he let out a laugh of a madmen. The floor beneath started to crack before something began to rise. I didn't even want to know what was happening as the palace itself was beginning to collapse. I summoned Death's Grasp and activated its trump card of flight as I grabbed Akame and Kurome and got out of there. I flew as shock waves began to rock the round and building began to collapse. I landed nearby just to see the atrocity that had been summoned.

Standing in what remained of the palace was a giant suit of armor. The armor itself was fashioned to look like the clothing that a king would wear. It looked thick enough I'm not sure even if Toripuru in sapphire form could cut it. I wasn't even sure if Schere's Extase could cut into the armored monster.

"You got to be joking." Akame said as Murasame dipped a little in her hand.

"I wish this was a joke." Kurome replied. I couldn't blame them this was a Teigu that even I wasn't sure we could beat.

'Curse any ideas?' I asked hoping the biological Teigu had some idea ready to lead us to victory.

 _'I got one but it is gonna cost you.'_ He replied in a solemn tone.

'Anything.' I said willing to do anything to destroy that monster.

 _'Keep using ace in the holes until that thing collapses.'_ I could see why this was a costly plan but it was definitely worth it. I then turned to the sisters who still had unsure expressions on their faces.

"Alright Curse devised a plan that can let us win." At those words their faces brightened a bit. "We need to use every ace in the hole we got left." A look of unhappiness crossed their faces as this would cost a lot but they nodded knowing it was necessary. The giant Teigu began firing off laser beams into the city causing massive explosions that you could feel the heat of miles away. As it began to charge another blast Akame brought Murasame forward and the blade began to glow a eerie black. The faded tattoos on Akame's skin began to glow black as well.

"Murasame remembers the pain and woe of all its victims." She said as the blade let loose a stream of black light towards Shikoutazer. The beam connected with the armor but showed no damage. The Teigu stopped charging it's lasers as it looked towards our direction. It looked like it was getting ready to charge an attack at us as a black circle surrounded its feet. From the circle black chains engraved with cursed runes as they began to latch on around the armor as it started leeching its poison into the Teigu. Knowing this was this time to strike I quickly summoned Catastrophe for the next attack.

I pointed the blade towards the sky as a fireball began to form at the tips of the blade. The ball of fire increase to the size of a persons head as I shot it towards the sky. In a matter of seconds a bright light flashed into existence in the sky and was so bright it could be compared to the sun. The ball of fire began to increase in size and brightness as it came closer and closer to the surface. Soon the source of the light broke through the clouds as a gigantic meteor appeared and slammed into Shikoutazer.

The combined power of the two ace in the holes seemed to cause great strain on the armor as it toppled over and fell. I began to think we had actually succeeded in destroying the armor but was soon discouraged as it stood back up fully repaired.

"Self repair abilities!?" I exclaimed not believing how unlucky we were. I then summoned Fantomu as the blade appeared in my hands I activated another ace in the hole. Hundreds of copies of Fantomu surrounded the armored giant as they all sunk into the Teigu they lit up in a unholy purple color burning the armor. As this happened Shikoutazer began firing more destructive lasers causing more and more explosions. I then summoned Boido the combination of Toripuru, Genso, Curse, and Life's Egg. A deep purple blade that was so dark it was nearly black formed in my hands. I raised the blade towards the monstrosity and began to the next attack.

Purple tears in the air began to appear everywhere. It acted like a vacuum as it seemed to suck in the air around it. From those tears in the air purple pythons began to slither their way out. As they appeared they took notice of Shikoutazer and began moving towards it as it was still burning from Fantomu's fire. When they reached the armor they began to slither along it before they coiled around the arms and legs. They started constricting the armor causing slight cracks to appear. I noticed the cracks were repairing but kept being broken as the snakes continued to constrict. As the attack continued I felt the toll from using so many ace in the hole abilities and collapsed due to exhaustion. Luckily Kurome managed to catch me before I hit the ground.

Akame picked up Boido as she began to pick up where I left off. A poison green blade then formed in her hands as Doku the fusion of Toripuru, Murasame, Curse and Life's Egg formed. A green bubble formed on the tip of the blade as a sludge like liquid began to drip from the bubble. The drops that fell from the bubble and landed on the ground began to quickly erode the areas they touched. As the bubble reached the size of a boulder it quickly launched itself forward and collided with Shikoutazer. Upon collision the armor began to disintegrate. The armor disintegrated rapidly as the armor tried to repair but to no avail. Eventually you could see the emperor inside the head of the armor.

"Just one more." Akame said as sweat dripped down her face. Due to her not being used to casting ace in the holes like I was the Teigu's were causing more strain on her. She then summoned Yumi the fusion of Murasame and Curse. Unlike the other fusions this one was a bow. The bow was a forest green and instead of tipped arrows there was green smoke in the shape of an arrow. Akame took aim at the emperor and activated the Yumi's trump card. This allowed every shot to hit its target. She let loose the arrow and we watched as it sailed through the sky. It approached the emperor and as it closed in on him the arrow dissipated and green gas surrounded him as it entered his body. We watched as Shikoutazer stopped all movement. Seconds passed as the armor stood still before it collapsed on itself.

Struggling to get up I couldn't help but take a few steps forward as I looked at what remained of the mighty Teigu.

"We did it." I murmured not believing it was finally over. Before I could say more Curse started freaking out.

 _'What is this feeling? It feels like...no it can't be! Tatsumi grab the girls and run now!'_ He said urgently. I knew this had to be serious for Curse to freak out so I turned around to grab Akame and Kurome only to watch as two spears of black ice pierced their hearts killing them instantly.


	27. Shattered

Words could not even begin to describe the pain I was going through. Have you ever been tortured? Multiply the pain caused by torture a million times and that won't even come close to the pain I'm feeling. I was forced to helplessly watch as the two girls I loved more than anything were murdered before my eyes. I dropped to my knees as I saw their lifeless bodies hit the ground blood trailing from their wounds.

"Akame, Kurome." I said not believing what was happening.

 _Flashback_

 _"Are really a family now?" A ten year old Akame asked as Kurome looked at me with the same question showing through her eyes._

 _"Yes we are a family." I responded back ruffling their hair._

 _"Promise?" Kurome asked extending her pinky with her sister doing the same._

 _"I promise we will always be family and I will protect both of you with my life." I said linking both of my pinkies with theirs._

 _Flashback End_

Hot tears trailed down my faces as I remembered the bittersweet memory. I had failed them, I promised I would protect them and here they are dead. I was a worthless excuse of a person breaking my promise to them.

 _Flashback_

 _"So what do you wanna be when you grow up?" A now ten year old Kurome asked as she and her sister sat next to each other eating cookies. I pondered the question before I responded._

 _"I want to be one of the heroes in those stories. I want to be strong and save everyone!" I exclaimed proudly. "What about you two?" I asked them curiously. They took a glance at each other before they returned their attention back to me._

 _"We want to be brides!" They happily said._

 _Flashback End_

"I'm sorry you never got to be brides." I said quietly in a chocked voice. Me a hero? That is a load of bull. A hero protects the ones they care about and doesn't let any harm come to them. I am no hero in fact I'm worse than a villain.

 _Flashback_

 _Kurome and Akame snuggled closer to me as we laid in bed._

 _"Tatsumi?" Akame said in a cute quiet voice._

 _"Yeah?" I asked wondering what she wanted._

 _"I love you." She said as she planted a kiss on my lips. After the kiss ended I returned the favor to her._

 _"I love you too." I replied as we broke apart once again. Turning my attention to Kurome I kissed her as well. "And I love you too Kurome." Her eyes lit up in happiness as she eagerly returned the kiss._

 _Flashback End._

I loved them. I loved them and now they are gone. They are dead and never coming back. I quickly felt rage merge with my grief as the tears coming from my eyes began to slow down as I felt a unrivaled rage course through my blood.

"Who killed them!?" I asked tears silently leaking from my eyes. A harsh yet familiar laugh rang through the air as I pinpointed the source above me.

"Have you forgotten my already Tatsumi?" A blue haired woman mockingly asked as she somehow floated in the air.

"Esdeath." I said her name with venom. "I don't care how you are alive but you made the biggest mistake possible. First you destroyed my village killing my friends and family when I was only ten. I would have gone insane if I hadn't met them." I said as fresh tears began to pour out. "And now you take them away from me!? I swear to you I will torture you to death and I will personally walk down to the gates of hell to torture you again." I said this last part as pure fear inducing rage began to emit from me.

 _'Tatsumi I know you're in pain but if you want to avenge those two you need to be very careful about this fight.'_ As Curse spoke the word 'avenge' caught my attention.

'Oh and why is that? I am going to yank her hair out strand by strand. I will then rip out her fingernails and toenails to increase the pain. I WILL FILL HER BLOOD WITH BOILING OIL AND GRIND HER BONES TO SAND!' I yelled the last part unable to contain my anger any longer.

 _'That is not the Esdeath you know. That Esdeath died when Murasame killed her. This Esdeath is a resurrected corpse only made possible by the darkness. The very same darkness I spoke to you about when we first met. Summon the power of Utsu and show her the true power of the shadow king.' Curse said more serious than ever._

Barely controlling my rage I began to summon Utsu. This was the strongest Teigu known in existence and the only one capable of combat with the darkness. It was the fusion of all five legendary Teigus. Two swords shimmered into existence as Utsu appeared. Both blades were similar yet different. They were both the same size and shape. Halfway from the grip to the guard a circular gem was presented. The left blade having a orb as white as snow and the right blade had a orb dark as night. Cursed runes from Murasame's poison were etched onto both gems as they circled around inside showing their power. The left blade when moved in the slightest showed after images while the right blade was colored red, blue, and green. For the finishing touch a obsidian black chain connected the two blades.

Utsu had hundreds of regular abilities it could use but unlike other Teigu it had neither a trump card or an ace in the hole. Utsu instead had an ultimate an ability with once use that would destroy most of the Teigu that formed the blade after I was done using it. It would also cause immense strain on the user putting their life at risk. The cost however was worth the reward. The ultimate allowed me to copy any Teigu's trump card and I had one particular one in mind.

"Roman Artillery: Pumpkin." I muttered as the blades hummed in agreement. Like Pumpkin the power of my blades would reflect on my emotions now which due to how out of control my emotions were it would make Utsu strong enough to even one shot Shikoutazer. However I had a feeling darkness Esdeath would be much stronger than Shikoutazer.

'Curse if you are one of the Teigu that is destroyed or if I die it was a honor.' I said to the Teigu.

 _'Likewise my king. Avenge those who were precious to you.'_

 **AN: For the fight scene I highly recommend listening to "Senses Overload."**

Twin auras of black and white began to circle me as the power of the blade began to give me strength. Soon enough I felt a massive strain on my back as wings one pure black the other pure white popped out of my back. My green eyes met Esdeath's now black ones as I snarled at her. With a savage monster like roar I charged at her. A sly smile appeared on her face as she flicked her hand and pillars of black ice began to shoot from the ground. I evaded the pillars and swung my blades at Esdeath who countered with a pair she herself had summoned.

"Coming on to me now? My how bold you have become." She taunted. I let out a growl as I felt my anger increase even more. Charging up the blades I began mimicking vertical slashing motions as black and white wind slashed launched a relentless barrage against Esdeath. She countered with a ice barrier before launching the barrier at me. I was forced to cut the shield down and was surprised by the follow up attack as Esdeath began causing explosions in the middle of the air, one of them catching me off guard and knocking me to the ground.

"Why wont you just die!?" I heard her exclaim as I got up ignoring the pain from my now bleeding legs. I jumped into the air as I began charging Utsu. When the energy peaked I let the energy go as beams of black and white fused together as they plowed straight towards Esdeath who shot back with her own ice beam.

"Because of them." I said as more memories of my time with Akame and Kurome began to fill my mind.

 _Flashback_

 _"I'm hungry." A certain pair of sisters exclaimed as we walked through the snow._

 _"Well let's go find some food." I said to them as I drew Toripuru._

 _We walked hours through the snow before we encountered a large bird danger beast. After we had killed and cooked the beast I had gone to a nearby stream to wash my hands from the blood of the beast before eating. When I had returned I was greeted with the sight of the skeleton of the beast and two black hair sisters patted their tummies._

 _"We're hungry." They said in sync as their stomachs growled in agreement._

 _"You got to be joking me!" Was the only thing I could say._

 _Flashback End_

I flew above Esdeath and summoned a triangle encasement around her. The triangle consisted of three walls: one red, the next blue, and the last green. The triangle encasement began to shoot streams of energy at her. Esdeath's screams of pain could be heard as the beams began to cook her alive. When the walls faded from existence a Esdeath with half of her face missing was presented. Instead of bone and gore being beneath the missing skin all that was there was a black shadow substance. What surprised me more was that she still moved as she began shooting ice again at me.

"Good." I said noting she still had fight in her and a sadistic grin formed on my face. "I want to torture you more." I rushed forward as blades met each other resulted in a clearing.

 ** _"Why do you fight?"_** A raspy ancient voice said. The strange thing was it came from Esdeath's mouth.

"For them." I said as I parried her blades and kicked her in the gut.

 _ **"Foolish mortal."**_ She said as black shadows began to shoot out of her body. The shadows began to wrap around me and constrict me. I began struggling in the grasp of the hands of shadow as more memories flowed into my mind.

 _Flashback_

 _"So how did this happen again?" Kurome asked as she poked me with a stick. Akame who was standing beside her examining Toripuru which was on the ground looked up wanting to know as well. Currently I was hanging upside down in one of Lubbock's traps.  
_

 _"Well you see I was walking, heard a noise, and this happened." I said as I struggled but failed to move in the tight wired net I was contained in._

 _"Hmmm. Should we release him Akame?" Kurome playfully asked her sister._

 _"I don't know." She said in a equally playful voice. "Maybe we should have him do something?" She asked as she put a finger on her chin to mimic that she was thinking._

 _"I'll do anything." I said not knowing the consequences those words would unleash._

 _"Anything?" They asked with mischievous grins forming on their face._

 _"Yes anything!" I said as the net began to draw a little blood from me struggling so much._

 _"So about that thing your gonna do." Kurome said as she leaned upwards and whispered what she wanted into my ears._

 _"I'm not doing that!" I exclaimed embarrassed of the mental picture that formed in my head._

 _"Well I guess your going be hanging around for a while." Kurome said as she began to walk away with Akame._

 _"Alright, I'll do it." I said knowing this was the only way to get out of this mess. Laughter rang loudly from the Night Raid base that night as I showed up to the meeting in one of Mine's dresses._

 _Flashback End._

With a burst of power I escaped from the coils of the shadows as I crossed the blades of Utsu. A purple hellfire began to encase the blades as I once again swung at Esdeath. She blocked but the hellfire spread from my blades to hers as she was encased the the fire. Her screams rang out as the fire consumed her. When the flames died down a humanoid figure was all that remained. Esdeath's body long gone the darkness was shown in its true form. The structure of its body looked human enough but the body was made of black wisps and blood red eyes were the only color that stood out.

 _ **"You dare defy me mortal!?"**_ The being said.

"I thought you were better than that Tatsumi." Esdeath's voice came from the being. At the sound of her voice even more rage began to form inside my mind. I wanted nothing more than to kill Esdeath or whatever this thing was and watch as it screamed in agony.

"Just shut up and die!" I said as I shot more beams of energy at the being. I began feeling the toll of Utsu's ultimate as I lost sight in one of my eyes. My opponent noticed this and a smokey red grin formed on its face.

 _ **"Your power is faltering."**_ It said chuckling. I began to think more and more of the precious memories I had with Akame and Kurome to further fuel the power of Utsu's ultimate.

 _Flashback_

 _"Why do you think there are so many stars?" Akame asked as the three of us laid on a wool blanket staring up into the night sky._

 _"I don't know nor do I care as long as their pretty to look at." Kurome said voicing her opinion. I chuckled at her words as I thought of an answer to Akame's question._

 _"I think they are mirrors to reality." I said. Both of the girls turned their heads to look at me after I said those words, their expressions telling me to continue. "I mean there are countless stars in the night sky. I think each of them show a different possibility for what is to come. But the reason they are so far away is so we can't choose the exact path we want to take." I finished my explanation as both of them inched their faces closer to mine._

 _"So which path gets us kissed?" They asked together as they closed their eyes and leaned forward._

 _"This one." I said as I kissed them._

 _Flashback End._

"You. Will. Suffer. And. Die." I said as I shot beams of energy with each word. I then wrapped my wings in a cocoon around me forming a cylinder of sorts. I felt an immense amount of energy build up and release as the sound of a cannon went off as the propulsion from the blast sent me back a few feet. The shot had connected with the being and ripped it in half. His body began to reform but more differently than last time. Great shadowy demonic wings sprouted from his back, a dozen spider like appendages formed along various parts of the body, and his head morphed into a dragons.

 _ **"Be proud mortal. You are the only one to have ever pissed me off enough to go into my true form."**_ With those words he unhinged his jaws as a dark blood red fire erupted from his maw. I countered with my purple hellfire as the two sources of flame collided they began to build upward as the battle for dominance. Eventually both flames dissipated at the same time. He rushed forward and landed some cuts on me as his wings clipped me as I evaded. At first I thought they were just to speed up his flight or make him look more demonic but they were actually weapons. Bringing the two blades of Utsu I raised them over my head and brought them down causing a powerful shard of energy to sail towards him.

Like flicking an ant of of his leg he knocked the shard aside as he gave an amused grin. I began my next attack before something odd happened. One moment the being was a good distance away and the next he is in front of me with his blades piercing my chest just mere inches from my heart.

"How?" I asked as blood began to pour from the wound.

 _ **"It was a move specially devised for you. The freezing of time itself."**_ I began to see stars in my remaining eye as I felt myself began to lose conciseness as he inched his blades closer to my heart.

"No, not now. I will not die until I win." I said in pained breaths. I began to focus on the happiest memory that I had ever had with Akame and Kurome.

 _Final Flashback_

 _It was a couple of days after we had killed Esdeath. Akame, Kurome, and myself had finally recovered and were enjoying a much needed relaxing date. It was nighttime as we walked through the streets. Akame was on my left and Kurome was on my right. As we passed a particularly pretty and abandoned section of the city I stopped walking. Noticing my halt they both turned towards me._

 _"What's wrong Tatsumi?" Kurome asked._

 _"Are you still exhausted?" Akame asked._

 _"No I just wanted to give the both of you a present." I told them. At the word present their eyes lit up with excitement. "Close your eyes." I told them. As their eyes closed I reached around in my pockets looking for the container and smiled as my hands clasped around it. I pulled it out of my pocket and knelt down on the ground as I started mentally preparing my words._

 _"Alright open your eyes." I told them. As their eyes opened they quickly formed a questioning look as they noticed the position I was in with something hidden between my two hands. "Akame, Kurome ever since we met all those years ago you two have been my only family. I can not imagine life without the two of you by my side. Ever since our feelings became clear for one another I have been the happiest person in the world. So that is why I ask this question. After this war is over will you both do me the honor of marrying me?" I shifted my hands around the rectangular box and flipped it open revealing two rings._

 _Two rings were nestled in the box of red velvet. One of them was a pure gold ring with the darkest blood red diamond in the grasp. The other one was silver in contrast and a diamond as black as night with tiny little white specks floated within the inside of the gem. The two of them gasped as their hands covered the mouths in surprise. That surprise quickly changed to happiness as they both tackled me to the ground._

 _"I'll take that as a yes?" I asked happy already knowing their answer. Their only response was a kiss on the lips._

 _Flashback end_

As the memory ended I felt his blades pierce my heart. I would have died as the blades touched my heart but Utsu had changed my body physically. A sadistic smile formed on my face as I felt him try to yank the blades out noticing I was still alive.

 _ **"What trickery is this!?"**_ He demanded while sounding slightly scared. My smile only grew as I knew this was checkmate.

"Don't you know? Utsu kills the user from overuse and starts changing the body. My heart is gone now and replaced with a miniature and less powerful black hole." At those words his eyes widened in fear. I raised the left blade of Utsu and stabbed him while releasing a shockwave of energy. "That was for Kurome." I said as I raised the next blade and stabbed him causing another shockwave. "That was for Akame." I began charging the blades full of energy as he squirmed scared out of his mind. "And this is for screwing up my life!" I shouted as I released the energy causing his body to explode from the inside out.

"It's done." I said barely audible as I dropped Utsu. I felt myself lose all of the remaining energy I had as my wings gave out causing me to rapidly descend to the ground. I barely manage to extend them as I landed with a crash. I noticed the remains of the legendary five Teigu scatter among the ground. Toripuru, Murasame, Genso, and Curse were all broken as their shards littered the ground. Only Life's Egg was still intact.

I gave a small smile as I felt the effects of using Utsu taking effect. I lost the vision in my other eye as I laid there on the ground with my body slowly going numb. I couldn't help but keep repeating the words 'Akame' and 'Kurome' in my head like a mantra. I closed my now blind eyes as I felt myself coming closer to death. "I'm coming now." Were the last words I muttered as I entered the never ending sleep.

 **Don't worry this isn't the last chapter of the story. The next one however will be the last chapter of the story. But the good news is a sequel is going to be posted.**


	28. Epilogue

It had been a month since the defeat of The Empire. Many people had died that doe both participants in the battle and helpless civilians. Most of the civilian deaths being the result of Shikoutazer. After it was clear that The Empire had fallen the remaining soldiers either surrendered or fought until they were overwhelmed. Currently major reconstruction and rehabilitation was going on. Much of the buildings that had once proudly stood in the city had fallen to the savage destruction of war and was in the process of being rebuilt. Hospitality wards were common as they gave out free food and other such necessaries to those who needed it.

Many miles away from the city walking up a hill on a dirt road was an odd group of people. But these weren't just any ordinary people they were the remaining members of Night Raid the infamous assassin group who were currently the only ones who knew this road existed. After the defeat of Wild Hunt and the destruction of Shikoutazer they had sought out Honest. They found the fat old man trying to run or in his case walk out of the city. They quickly brought him down with little trouble. Normally after the defeat of their enemy they would be happy that their task was complete. And they would have been happy if it wasn't for the cost. Tatsumi, Akame, and Kurome lives had been that cost. They were the only ones who had died in that final battle and it was all because of Esdeath.

After the death of Honest they had come back to the wreckage of Shikoutazer to locate their friends when they spotted the bodies of Akame and Kurome. There was immediate despair as they rushed forward and examined their bodies and checking to see if they had a pulse. After unsuccessfully being able to save them they quickly noticed Tatsumi was not there and that's when the sound of combat had reached their ears. They looked up into the air to see Tatsumi fighting the blue haired tyrant in a battle of epic proportions. They watched as abilities clashed in a battle of strength and watched as Tatsumi had slain the mysterious black creature that had come out of Esdeath's body. They were however sent down another road of despair as they watched helplessly as his body skyrocketed towards the earth. They saw him struggling with his wings as he neared the earth before his impact so that gave them hope he had survived the crash. That hope was for naught as they had just arrived to see the broken form of Tatsumi and hear him speak the words, "I'm coming now" as entered the clutches of death. They shed silent tears that day for their fallen comrades.

Currently they were heading to the location where they had buried them. The funeral itself had been a brief and short one hence why they were coming to pay their respects today. The reason the funeral was short was due to how urgent the current distress of The Empire or at least what was left of it. For the past month they had been tying up loose ends and today was the first chance they had gotten to come pay their respects.

As they neared the top of the hill they were greeted with the sight of three gravestones laid side-by-side near the edge of a cliff. This cliff gave a majestic view of the see and since Tatsumi often mentioned being buried near the sea Najenda had decided this would be an appropriate resting place for them. The gravestones themselves weren't spectacular just a bunch of neatly placed rocks but they did have some diminishing items in each of them. The left grave had the broken blade of Murasame wedged between the marks marking it as Akame's grave, the middle one had Toripuru's broken blade showing Tatsumi's grave, and the right grave had Genso's remains on Kurome's grave. Along with the blades was the remains of Curse. From the broken chain of Curse they had salvaged three links of the chain and placed one link on each of the broken Teigu's grips. Life's Egg was the only one of the legendary five Teigu not present above the ground as it had been buried with Tatsumi.

As Night Raid approached the graves some of they stopped while others got closer. In the end only Chelsea approached the graves directly as she placed flowers on each of the graves before joining the others.

"It's done." Bulat mused as he stared at Tatsumi's grave missing his fellow male.

"We couldn't have done it without them." Lubbock said in a low voice as he picked up a head sized flat rock that was sitting nearby.

"I'm gonna miss them." Mine said in a unusually sad voice as her gaze switched between the graves. Minutes passed as they stood there motionless save Lubbock who was messing around with the rock. The stillness was broken as Susanoo approached the graves and stopped five feet from them. Everyone had their eyes trained on the biological Teigu as he brought out his blade and sunk it into the ground. Everyone wondered what was going on and as Najenda was about to ask what he was doing Bulat started moving as well. He followed Susanoo's lead and brought out Incursio and sunk it down next to the other weapon. Everyone's brains immediately understood what was happening as one by one they began placing their Teigus in the ground or in Lubbock's and Chelsea's cases placed their Teigu on the ground.

"Our fight is over." Najenda said as she eyed her two robotic sword arms in the ground.

"But even after the end of life." Schere continued.

"Our blades our yours." Bulat finished.

Lubbock let out a small happy laugh as he had finished his small task. The others turned to look at him to see what he had done for him to only walk past them and place a rock with something written on it in front of Tatsumi's grave.

"What does it say?" Asked Mine. Lubbock moved out of the way so the others to see the engraving he had put on the stone.

 **Here lies three brave heroes**

 **Here lies three people who gave their lives for the sake of peace**

 **Here lies The Three Blades.**

* * *

 **And that is the end of my first story. To be honest I never expected to get this sort of reaction out of my first fanfiction. I am so happy for every favorite, follow, view, and review I got as I worked on this story and I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has supported this story. So as thanks I am going to give a hint about the sequel and yes there will be a sequel titled The Shattered Blade. While the hint isn't big it should be figured out easily by some of you. The hint itself it to go read Chapter 12: Dreams again. I will be posting one more chapter but that will just be to announce that the sequel is up which should be around a week from today give or take a few days. So anyways thanks again for the support and I can't wait to see your support for the sequel.**


	29. Sequel Out!

**I am excited to announce The Shattered Blade is now published. Well what are you waiting for? Get off this stupid page and go read that chapter!**


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